Edd and Marie's New Life in Lemon Brook
by Linken88
Summary: This is a sequel to my story [Ed, Edd & Eddy A Weekend Alone]. High school is over and the next chapter in Edd and Marie's life is about to start. Living together in Lemon Brook Edd and Marie will face the changes that come with life as adults in a new city together. College, full time jobs and seeing the person they love everyday just to name a few.
1. Chapter 1

**A quick note to new readers this is a sequel to my story [****Ed, Edd & Eddy A Weekend Alone****] so I recommend reading that before this one to understand what is going on. To the returning readers I hope you enjoy this one just as much as the original. Some changes I've made is that I will not be changing what the characters are wearing every day, what they have on for street clothing will not change. Also the whole Stark Industries thing I did in the fourth chapter, I'm retconing that to just be a coincidence and am not having anymore Marvel comic stuff be part of the "real world" of the story (I have a line I NEED for a later chapter that won't work if I don't make this change).**

*Beep beep* an alarm goes off and a long black haired figure stirs in his bed. *Beep beep* the alarm goes off again and this time the figure reaches out and turns it off before a third set of beeps could sound. Yawning and stretching as he sits up in his bed Edd, also known by his full name of Eddward by anyone with authority and Double Dee by his friends, blinks away the sleep from his eyes. It's been almost three years since that one fateful weekend that lead to the biggest changes the residents of the Peach Creek cul-de-sack have ever seen and today marks the start of the next big changes.

Tossing the covers off and moving to the side of the bed. "Today really is the day." He says yawning again as he recalls the dream he had had. While he slept his mind had recalled the events of that weekend at school years ago.

The Kanker sisters, Lee, Marie and May, had attempted and failed to set Edd and his two best friends, Eddy and Ed, up to be trapped by them for the whole weekend after school one day, and in a last ditch effort the three girls chased the boys around their high school in hopes of trapping them still.

Marie the middle sister, and also the most cunning and clever of the three, chose to chase Edd into a broom closet in the school so she could "have her way with him". But when she tried to leave to get help for Edd after he knocked himself out she discovered that the door was stuck and wouldn't open. It ended up taking Edd's clever problem solving stills to get the door open, but when they did get out of the closet they discovered that the school had been closed for several hours and that they were to be stuck in the school until someone came to find them or open the school on Monday. This had crushed Edd as he had a special event he was going to attend for the weekend. When he had told Marie this it was the first time she had felt regret for what her and her sisters have put the Ed's through and she vowed to show Edd the sides of her she's never shown anyone.

And she did show him, she showed him that she does care for his well-being despite what she has put him through. How she has a love for art and is a skilled painter and sketcher, that she has a fear of the dark. She even got him to stop hiding his long black hair under his ski hat, something he has been doing since he moved to Peach Creek.

As they spent time together alone in the school Edd started to develop complex emotions about Marie, on the one hand she was the instigator of most of the strife in his life but on the other she was this blue haired beauty with a secret heart of gold that he was having fun with. After sharing an unplanned by him passionate kiss, their second of the weekend, he needed to put these feelings to the test.

So once they were set free of the school by the principle he asked her out on a date to the mall. They spent most of the day there and by the end he knew he did like Marie. Using all of his courage Edd went against everything Eddy would have advised and asked her to be his girlfriend. Hearing him asks this of her made Marie happier them she had ever been and agreed to his request.

Edd's friends were nowhere near as happy or accepting as Marie was over their relationship but one by one they started to come around. Eddy, being the stubborn person he was, was the last of them to accept it. Because of Edd's relationship with Marie May changed her tactics with Ed, she stopped following the path Lee had lead the sisters down of forcing the Ed's into liking them and tried being nice to him. Edd gave her the advice of trying to talk about comics with Ed, thinking she only wanted a way to talk with him, and because of Ed's massive love for comic books it worked. Eventually May and Ed became friends through their mutual enjoyment of comics and halfway through their senior year they even started dating.

The three sisters also became accepted into the group of friends, mostly due to Nazz inviting them to group hangouts, Eddy even started being friendly with Lee. Eddy and Lee's passive aggressive friendship also lead the two of them into becoming a couple on prom night, to no one's real surprise.

It was on prom night that Edd told Marie that he was going to go to the Lemon Brook Community College. Which she didn't understand why he would choose there, until he asked her to come live in Lemon Brook with him. Again this made her happier them she had ever been and agreed to his request.

Normally Edd would make his bed right away after waking up, but today was the last day he would spend in his parents' house so he left the covers unmade. He'd spent the majority of the previous day packing up his belonging in boxes, each labeled with a list of what was inside of them. He still needed to pack up the last few things left in his room, so after eating a quick breakfast and a shower he changed into an orange T-shirt with a black long sleeve one under it, black dress pants and put on his dark red converts before he went about finishing packing. Edd hasn't realized it, but Marie has influenced his wardrobe over the years with her punk rocker ways. It wasn't anything too drastic, he just wears more black colored clothing, like he is now, and has even gone to school without a tie a few times when a rebellious streak would hit him. Also thanks to Marie liking his long hair and Edd wanting to grow as a person he had chosen to retired his old ski hat from its place atop his head, a move that Marie and his parents enjoyed.

As he packed up the last few things he thinks about the past, he remembers all of the things that have happened in the house his family has lived in for the past thirteen years. All the times he would spend with Ed and Eddy working on homework and just hanging out with them before the three became accepted into the group of friends and the few time Marie had broken in and chased him.

After he finished with his room he went to pack up the few toiletries he has in the restroom and on his walk back into his room he sees a letter left on his door by his parents. He sets the box down on the floor and opens the letter.

"Dearest Eddward. Your father and I do regret that we could not see you off today, but do know that we will always love you and we will miss you. You have made us very proud over the years and while we understand and accept your choice to attend Lemon Brook Community College so you could stay closer to Marie, your father wants you to remember that the lease on your apartment is only for six months so if you do change your mind and want to transfer to a different school you can. Again we love you Eddward and even though you are all grown up and leaving the nest, you will always be my little boy genius and you are always welcome to come home. With all my love, your mother."

His mother's letter to him was very formal, just like the post-it notes they used to leave for him all over the house, but it still held the love she had for her only child.

One thing he felt a little guilt over from her letter was the line about Marie. He had thought it was best to not tell his parents that Marie was going to be living with him in Lemon Brook. One reason being his parents are a bit old fashion and the idea of them "living in sin" would not go too well, the other being that Marie's eighteenth birthday was still a week away and thus means she is still legally a minor.

The conversation he had with his parents when he had told them about wanting to stay close to Marie was the first time he saw a look of disappointment on his father's face.

Marie had come over to his house to be there for support, this being the first time he had ever stood up to his parents about his education.

When Edd's mother saw Marie she invited her to join them for dinner, something she's done every time Marie would come over to their house in the evening.

Marie expected the invitation but wasn't sure if they would still want her around after Edd dropped the bomb he was about to about his choice of school. "Maybe Pam, I might have to leave here soon." Marie says choosing her words carefully.

Edd's mother Pam smiles at her son's girlfriend. "I understand Marie, but the offer is out there for you." As time had gone by Pam had grown to love Marie as if she was part of the family. Pam has even invited, and half expected her to already be coming, to a few family functions in the past. Pam would always forget that Marie was a Kanker and is anything but elegant and proper, but would be reminded when she least expected it. Like Marie giving Edd a pair of black silk boxers with little white skulls on them for his eighteenth birthday. Marie claimed that they were meant as a joke gift and that she just didn't know what to get him, but in all reality Marie wanted to see her gentlemen of a boyfriend in something a bit more risque than what he usually wears.

Knowing he needs to execute his plan as soon as he could Edd asks his mother; "Do you know when Father will be home Mother?"

"Soon I do believe Eddward, he didn't have any meetings this afternoon so he shouldn't have to work late." Pam answers her son as he and his girlfriend follow her into the living room.

Just as she was about to sit down in an arm chair Pam hear the front door open. "And that would be your father, please excuse me." She says leaving the room.

When Pam was out of the room Marie turned to Edd sitting next to her on the couch. She could tell that he was getting nervous about what was about to happen. "Hey, it will be ok Double Dee. I'm here for you." She says lacing her fingers together with his.

Edd squeezing her hand with his. "Thank you Marie. This is all just so nerve racking. Defying once parents is something I never thought I would do."

"We all do crazy things for the ones we love, I'm a prime example of that."

"I know, and I would do anything for you Marie."

"I love you Edd." Marie says before giving him a quick but affectionate kiss.

Edd rests his head against hers. "I love you too Marie."

Out of the room by the door Pam was greeting her husband at the door. "Good evening Honey." She says giving him a quick kiss.

After returning the kiss Ed's father says; "Good evening to you too Pam, how was your day at work?"

"Oh you know, same stuff different day. How was your Jake?"

"It was good, I think I have new client locked in."

"That's wonderful to hear. I should tell you that Marie is in the living room with Edd." Pam says knowing he would want to know that their son's girlfriend is over.

"You left them alone?" Jake asks shocked at what his wife had just said.

Shaking her head thinking his shock was unnecessary. "They are only a few feet away, they are not going to be doing anything."

"Still it's not a good idea to leave them alone for too long, they are teenagers after all."

"You worry about them too much, Eddward is a good by and he would never do anything rash." She says believing her words.

In the living room they find Edd and Marie still sitting on the couch where Pam had left them. Edd was holding Marie in his arms and Marie was resting her head on his chest.

"See, they are just cuddling on the couch." Pam whispers to her husband.

Edd sees his father and let's go of Marie. "Good evening Father."

"Evening Eddward, hello Marie." Jake says greeting the two teens.

"Hello Sir." Marie says greeting Jake with the title she knows he prefers her to use as she sat up.

"Eddward why don't you and Marie come help me with getting the table set for dinner." Pay asks her son as Jake sat down in the arm chair pulling off his tie.

"Um well Mother there is something I wish to discuss with you and Father before we sit down to eat." Edd says feeling his nerves reaching a critical level.

"What is it Eddward?" Pam asks before walking over and sitting down on the arm of the chair Jake was sitting on.

Edd looks down at his feet not wanting to look at his parents. "Well you see I have made my choice of what school I want to attend this fall."

"Good, so which have you chose? Harvard? MIT? I know Stanford hasn't sent a letter yet but I'm sure you will get accepted." Jake says excited to know where his son would like to go to further his education.

"Well um father… I have ch-chosen…" Edd started to lose his words from fear.

Marie see that Edd is having a hard time with telling his parents the big new and takes his hand into her again lacing their fingers together. "I'm here for you and I love you Muffin." She whispers to him squeezing his hand.

Marie's love for him is the strongest force Edd has ever seen in this world and it was his love for her that he made this choice. He squeezes her hand back as a way to channel their love for each other to give him the strength he needs.

Edd looks up at his parents and clears his throat. *Ahem* "I have chosen to attend the Lemon Brook Community College. I have already received an acceptance letter and have sent them my enrollment papers." As he says this he watches their expressions change from smiles to ones of confusion and disbelief.

"Did you say Community College? Eddward why would you choose such a simple school?" Jake asks already seeing his son's future falling to pieces.

Edd felt his whole body start to form a cold sweat. "Because… Because I want to stay close to Marie, I don't want to be apart from her."

Jake started to feel his anger rise. "You're going to throw away a great future for a girl? Eddward we did not raise you to make stupid decisions."

"But Father she is not just a girl, I love Marie and she loves me." Edd says arguing his point against his father for the first time in his life.

Jake looks from his son to Marie and then back to Edd, he doesn't share the same affection his wife dose for the blue haired girl. He does like her and thinks shes' a decent girl for his son to date while in high school, but he never would have thought she would be cause of something like this.

The room grew quiet from tension and Pam sees her husband stare switch between Edd and Marie. "Eddward, your father and I need to talk this over. Why don't you walk Marie home and we will let you know what we decide when you get home." Pam says knowing it would be best for her and her husband to be alone.

Neither Edd nor Marie say anything, they just quickly stand up and leave the room still holding hands.

When she hears the door close Pam turns to her husband. "Jake honey." She says putting her hand on his shoulder.

At the touch of her hand Jake gets up from the chair and starts pacing around the room. "When Eddward gets home we are putting a stop to this. We are going to tell him he is going to end his relationship with Marie and he is going to the school WE choose. I knew she was a bad egg right from the start."

Pam also got up from the arm of the chair "We can't do that Jake."

Jake stops his pacing and turns to her. "Yes we can, he is our son and he will do what we tell him to do."

"Yes he is our son, but he's not a child anymore Jake. If we try and force him to abandon Marie and to go to a school he doesn't want to he could run off with her. Do you want to push our only son away from us because he's going against what we want for him?" She asks trying to calm him down.

"He's throwing his life away." He says still trying to push his point.

Pam sets her hand on his shoulder again. "We don't know that. For all we know this could be what is best for him."

"How can you be so calm about this? You've wanted Eddward to succeed just as much as I have."

"Because I knew you wouldn't be, I'm just as upset about this as you. But I know that Eddward is not going to leave Marie, no matter what we tell him." Pam was upset about Edd's decision just like her husband. It hurt her to hear that he doesn't want to attend a high class school. "Imagine what would have happened if we did what we were told to do when we were young? It wasn't that long ago that my father didn't want me to marry a curtain man who used to have green dye in his hair and was called a rebel." Pam says reminding Jake that her father didn't like him originally.

Jake remembers how he used to dress before Pam and him got married. When they were in their twenty's Jake had his hair dyed green and would always wear an old black leather jacket and was rebellious against almost everyone. "Fine he can go to a simple Community College, but he is going to regret it when he gets no challenge from it." He says accepting his son's choice for the time being.

When Edd reentered the house after taking Marie home he began to dread what his parents will tell him. Quietly he walked into the living room looking for his parents. But his neither mother nor father was in the living room.

He walks from the living room into the hall. "Where could they be? I wasn't gone for that long."

Entering the kitchen he finds his mother sitting at the table drinking from a coffee mug. "Hello Mother."

His mother set down her mug. "Sit down Eddward." She says looking up at him.

Edd does what she asked of him and sit down in the chair. "Can I assume that you and Father are upset with me Mother?" He asks expecting his mother to agree with his guess.

"We are not happy about this Eddward, it seems like a very poor choice for your future. You have such great potential and a community college will not challenge you enough."

Edd was committed to his choice and responds that way. "I understand your concerns Mother, but I want to be close to Marie no matter what."

"You really are your father's son." She says remembering how stubborn her husband was when they were young. "We are willing to let you do this but your Father is not as accepting of this as I am and has gone off to bed already."

"I'm sorry that he is not happy Mother."

Pam picks up her mug to take another drink from it. "I'm sure he'll come around Edd, but for now you're going to want to be caucus around him."

After packing up the last of his things and giving his room another look over to be sure Edd has everything ready for the move he grabs two boxes and leaves the house. One full of his more delicate possessions and the other was something he'd bought for the apartment that he wanted to show Marie and have it be one of the first things to enter their soon to be new home.

Carefully he puts the boxes into the trunk of his old green car and then pulls his IPhone out of his pocket.

He looks at the four year old phone. "It's getting to be time to replace this old thing." He has had this phone since well before he started dating Marie and it definitely shows. There are wear marks all over the casing and a few fine scratches on the screen when he wasn't careful enough with it, or when Marie would surprise him causing him to drop it. Unlocking the screen he sees the same picture Marie had taken of them when they just started dating.

Not much has changed physically with Edd since that day, he's added a few inches to his height and had gained some muscle mass. He's still really thin but just isn't that tall and gangly boy he once was.

Opening up his contacts list then scrolling down he finds the most frequently used number and pushes the call button before brings the phone up to his ear. As it rings he opens and then enters the drivers door of the car.

"You've reached the office of Ms. Marie Kanker baddest girl in Peach Creek, this is her assistant." Edd hears Marie say through the phone.

Knowing she was playing around, like she does quite frequently, he responds to her in a playing manner as well. "Hello I'm calling to inform Ms. Kanker that I, Eddward, am finished preparing for our departure and will be arriving at her office soon." He says grinning at the little game they are playing.

"Very well, I shall inform her. Oh and Double Dee."

"Yes?" He wonders what she is about to say.

"I love you."

"I love you too Marie."

Giggling Marie ends the call on her own cell phone. A few months ago Marie and her sister went in on a cell plan together. They weren't fancy phones, or new models for that matter, but they had cameras and data so the sisters were happy with them.

Lee shakes her head at her sister. "Two years later and you're still in the honeymoon phase."

"Can it Lee, all that time you spend with your midget for a boy is almost as bad as May." Marie says back to her sister.

"But you spend more time with Double Dee then I spend with Ed." May says as she tossed a pile of clothing onto the girls shared queen sized bed.

Marie not wanting to admit that her sister was right waves her hand at May. "Eh details, come on Double Dee will be here soon and I need to finish packing."

Lee and May have been helping Marie pack up the few things that was hers out of all the stuff in their room. She had already packed up her art stuff into her old school backpack and had her few books, mostly all of which are about various art topics, inside a milk crate she had "acquired" from a local convenience store. She still needed to go through the house and pack up all the various things of hers and gather up her clothing, which her and her sisters were in the process of doing.

Marie pulls a white and red polka dot shirt from atop the pile and tossing it at her sister who was wearing a shirt just like it "Ok this one is definitely yours Lee."

Marie and her sisters also haven't changed much in the years that have passed. May had grown to match her sisters in height but she's gone a few shades paler from all the time she'd spend inside reading comics or watching movies with Ed. Lee however has remained mostly the same with her curly red hair in her eyes and a demeanor about her that demands respect. Marie has noticed that Lee looked a little different lately though, like she had an odd glow about her and she has been a little emotional too. Which was nothing like Lee, but Marie just assumed that it was because her sister was moving out that was affecting Lee.

Lee throws the shirt onto a pile on the floor. "Go get the rest of your stuff Marie, we'll sort out the clothing."

"K." Marie says before turning to walk out of the room.

She first hits the bathroom to get her belongings from there. With a grocery bag in hand she grabs her things and tosses them into the bag. Most of the makeup was shared between the sisters so Marie only took the things that her sisters never use, like the blue mascara black eyeliner and rust red nail polish.

After picking up the last of her things Marie stops and looks herself over in the mirror one last time. Like how she's influence Edd's dressing habits he has also caused a slight change in her clothing style as well. What has changed was that shes' stop ripping the sleeves off her T-shirt, like the black one with a white skull on it she is wearing now, and wears pants more often than skirts like she did back in high school, the green ones she has on happen to be her favorite. She had also purchased a pair of black converts just like Edd's. She was still about a head shorter than her boyfriend which kept her at the perfect size in her mind. But what she loved most of all about how she looked in the mirror, besides her blue hair with her bangs still covering her right eye, was the small silver heart necklace she had around her neck that Edd had given her for her sixteenth birthday. It was the think she cherished most in her life, second to Edd of cores and she wears it everyday.

She takes the bag down stairs and leaves it next to the door with the rest of her possession she has packed up.

"Heads up!" Marie hears May yell from the top of the stairs as a trash bag fly's down at her.

With her experience of living with her sisters Marie dodges the bag full of her clothes and watches it hit the door.

Marie yells up at her sisters. "You missed May."

"I got one more for ya if you want me to try and hit you again."

Laughing Marie says; "I'd rather you didn't." How Marie and her sisters interact at home is one of the things she knows she is going to miss. Sure they yell and throw things at each other, but their bond as sisters is stronger than iron.

The member of the Kanter family she knew she was probably going to miss the most was their mother.

Marie was so excited about the move that she couldn't sleep the previous night and ended up going down stairs into the kitchen for a snack and found her mother sitting at the table.

"Hey Mom." Marie says to her mother who was eating a late night sandwich.

"Couldn't sleep?" Ms. Kanker asks her middle daughter.

Marie opens the fridge to look for a snack. "No I couldn't."

"I don't blame you, tomorrow is a pretty big day for you."

"I'm still amazed that you are ok with this Mom, Double Dee's parents seems like they were ready to put me in front of a firing squad when he told them his plans." Marie says sitting down at the table with an ice-cream sandwich.

Ms. Kanker was a little upset about her daughter and Edd moving away to Lemon Brook, but not for the same reasons that Edd's parents where. She was just sad to see her little girl leaving home, but she loves Edd and thinks he's more than she had ever hoped for Marie.

Ms. Kanker shakes her head slightly. "I can't stop you two from continuing your lives together."

"You are the best mom ever Mom." Marie says smiling.

Ms. Kanker smiles back at her daughter. "You have to be the best to raise you and your sisters."

"I'm going to miss you Mom." Marie says looking down at her ice-cream sandwich.

"I'll miss you too Marie."

"Heh, I... I love you Mom." Marie felt a little embarrassed telling her mother she loves her, a word not used very often in their home.

"I love you too Marie." Ms. Kanker was happy to hear her daughter tell her she loves her. "Now seeing as we are being all feely, come here and give your mother a hug."

Marie walked around the table and her mother pulled her into a hug. Hugging was another rarity of the Kanker household.

"You kids are going to do fine." Ms. Kanker says holding her daughter in her arms.

Marie hugs her mother back. "Thanks Mom." Having her mother's blessing to move out with Edd was the only thing she wanted. She doesn't care that Edd's parents are unapproving of this, nor what anyone else would say.

Marie was bringing down the last of her things when there was a knock on the door. She sets down the box on the pile then opens the door and grins at her boyfriend.

Edd smiles back at her "Hello Marie."

Marie jumps the steps and hugs then kisses Edd. "Hey there handsome, my assistant told me you would be coming." She says after breaking the kiss.

Laughing Edd says; "Good I was hoping you would get my message, that new assistant of yours seems a little unprofessional in my opinion."

Marie twists a lock of Edd's long black hair around her finger. "Good thing she's getting fired after today."

"That Double Dee?" Lee yells at the couple from atop the stairs.

"Yes it is Ms. Noise-Pants." Marie yells back at her sister.

"Come up here the both of you." Lee yells wanting them to come up to the second floor.

Curious as to why Lee wants to see Edd and her Marie takes Edd's hand and they two of them walk into the trailer and up the stairs and into the sister's bedroom.

Inside the room Lee was sitting on the bed while May was picking up the clothing from the floor.

"Sit down you two." Lee says scooting back on the bed so Marie and Edd could sit down on the edge of the bed.

"What's up Lee?" Marie asks as her and Edd sat down on the bed.

"I wanted to tell you Marie, and you too Edd, that I'm happy for you both. I know we didn't get off on a very good start, but you looked past that and gave my sister a chance to do better. And now you two are going off to start a new life together and I couldn't ask for anyone better to take care of her." Lee says looking at Marie and Edd through her hair.

"Thank you Lee, it's good to know you-" Edd started to says but Lee cut him off.

"But know this. If you raise your hand to Marie or try and force her to do anything she doesn't want to, I will break both of your legs." Lee says points a finger at Edd.

"You have nothing to worry about Lee, I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep Marie happy." Edd says taking Marie's hand with his.

"I believe you Double Dee, still isn't going to stop me from reminding you what will happen if you cross a Kanker." Lee says grinning.

Laughing May says; "Ever the big sister aren't you Lee."

Lee turns to her youngest sister who has joined the others on the bed. "Someone has to look out for you two clowns."

"But you just said that you couldn't ask for anyone better to take care of Marie." May says getting confused by what her sister has said.

"I- I'm sorry." Lee says pulling her legs up to her chest. "I never thought anything like this would ever happen. So much has changed in such a short amount of time and now my own sister is leaving, it's just been too much to handle lately." She says fighting back tears.

"Are you ok Lee?" Marie asks as Lee starts to sniffle in her fight against the tears forming in her eyes.

Lee shakes her head. "I'm fine, just remember that you are always welcome to come home, or to call if you need anything. We may be apart but we're still The Kanker Sisters." Lee grabs both of her sisters around the neck and pulls them into a hug. "I love the both of ya, you big saps."

The hug was something Marie was expecting to happen from Lee, but her saying she loved her sisters was something Lee has never said. Not that she didn't love her sisters, it was just something that the sisters never needed to say to each other.

Marie surprised by her sisters' sudden affection. "We- we love you too Lee."

"Lee, are you crying?" May asks seeing a tear run down Lee's cheek.

Lee pushes her sisters away before they could see the other tears running down from her eyes. "No I just have something in my eye. Now go help your sister put her stuff into Double Dee's car."

The two sisters and Edd get up from the bed to leave the room but Lee speaks up again. "Double Dee, can I have a quick word?"

Unsure what she'd want to talk to him about Edd says; "Um, sure." Then pulls out his car keys and hands them to Marie. "I'll be down to help you in a minute."

"Please don't kill him Lee." Marie says as her and May leave the room.

Lee gets up from the bed. "If I did that I wouldn't ever be able to get rid of you."

Once she was sure her sisters couldn't hear or see her she grabbed Edd and pulled him into a hug. "You are an amazing person Double Dee, and I could never thank you enough for what you have done for this family. Because of you we made friends, because of you May got her one wish in life of Ed liking her. Because of you I got that big idiot of a clown for a boyfriend that I love. Everything that is right in this house is because of you and now Marie is getting a chance to do better than some peace of shit trailer and a shitty life." Lee says squeezing Edd.

Edd is shocked by the hug. "You are quite welcome Lee, and I have to say I've enjoyed my time spent getting to know your family."

"As far as I'm concerned you are family Double Dee." Lee says pushing herself away from Edd. "Now go and take my sister away from this trailer park and show her a life she deserves."

Edd does what she told him to do and started to walk out the door but stops and turns back to Lee who was sitting on the bed again. "I do believe that you and May will find a way to a better life as well Lee. Remember it was something as simple and insignificant as expired sleeping pills that lead us to where we are now." He says before leaving the room.

Down stairs Marie and May had most of Marie' things packed up into the car leaving one box and Marie's music box Edd had given her for their first Christmas to be packed into the car.

Marie picks up the music box with extra care. "What did Lee want?"

Thinking it was best to let Lee's emotional confession stay up in the bedroom for now Edd say; "She just wanted to make sure I knew she knows how to break the bones of a finger if I ever think of bringing harm upon you Marie."

"That is my over protective sister, come on I want to get to our new place as soon as we can." Marie says her excitement for the trip to Lemon Brook growing.

Edd picks up the last box and follows Marie out of the trailer for what he expected to be the last time for a very long time.

Outside May was closing the back passenger's side door to the car. "That the last of it?" She asks looking at her sister.

Marie opens the front passengers' door. "Yeah it is."

"So… So this really is it, isn't it?" May says looking down at the ground as Edd puts the box he had into the trunk of the car.

Marie also looking down at the ground too. "Yeah it is, well I'll see you later May."

May looks up at her sister and smiles. "Yeah, see ya."

Tucking the music box under one arm Marie pulls May into a hug with her free hand. "I'll miss you May, take care of Lee and Mom for me and don't do anything stupid with that gentle giant of a boyfriend you have."

May hugs her sister back. "I'll miss you too, and I will and I won't."

Once the sisters broke the hug May turned to Edd who was standing next to his door with his hands behind his back looking off in the distance to give the sisters some privacy. "What Lee told you upstairs goes double for me Double Dee." She says not knowing what Lee really told him.

But he guessed May wouldn't have changed what she had said if she knew what Lee had told him in the bedroom. "Trust me May, I'll never forget it and I will always keep Marie safe."

"Good, now get going or you'll spend all day in traffic." May says as Edd and Marie enter the car.

Taking a step back May watches the car back out then turn around to drive out of the Park and Flush all the while waving at her sister and Edd.

When the car drove out of the entrance May pulls out her own cell phone and call the number she uses the most. "Hey Ed, I'm going to have to cancel tonight. No I'm ok, I just think Lee would want me around for the rest of the day. Yeah I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Ed." She says canceling her plans with her boyfriend.

As they drove away from the houses Marie's smile started to fade a little as she thought about her sisters and not seeing them everyday anymore.

Edd noticing how quiet she is being asks; "Everything ok Marie?"

She looks over at him. "Tell me everything is going to be ok and this is the best thing to ever happen." She says needing to hear words of comfort from him.

He takes his right hand off the steering wheel and takes her left with his and squeezing it. "Everything will be ok Marie, and this is the best thing to have ever happened."

She squeezes his hand back. "Thank you Muffin."

"You are welcome Cupcake."

"I hope Lee is going to be ok, she's never acted like that before." Marie says still holding Edd's hand.

"She was a bit out of character today."

Marie starts to wonder what the cause of Lee's affection was. "She's never shown that much affection in her life."

As they drove down the road and then onto the highway to Lemon Brook they started talking about the big going away party Nazz had thrown for all of their friends to celebrate everyone who was moving away from the cul-de-sack.

Edd and Marie were not the only ones moving away, Nazz and Kevin were heading out of state for school. Nazz was going into political science and Kevin got a scholarship to play baseball, conveniently they are going to be going to the same school.

"When are Nazz and Kevin leaving?" Marie asks wondering if Edd had heard from their friends.

"She told me at her party that Kevin and her will be leaving for California later this month." Edd says answering her question.

"It was cool of Nazz to share her party with us."

"Yes it was nice of her to have another get together before half of our group of friends left the cul-de-sack."

"I still can't believe Jonny went and joined the army."

"He really was into the Urban Rangers years ago, so it does make a little sense for him to go into the armed services."

"But leaving his little brother was something I never thought he'd do with how much he went on about him."

"Would you believe me if I told you I saw him give his little brother Plank?"

"Yes." Marie says slouching in her seat to get conferrable fully believing that Johnny would give his old plank of wood to his little brother.

They continued the small talk about their group of friends and what they are going to be doing now that high school is over. Edd, Nazz and Kevin are the only ones going off to college. Rolf was staying in Peach Creek to take care of the animals his family owns and his grandmother. Eddy tried to get into college but his grades were just not good enough for him to get accepted anywhere. Edd did the best he could to help, but Eddy just didn't put enough effort into school. And because he didn't get into a collage Eddy's father made him start working construction with him, which Lee said made him "look almost like a real grown up" When she saw him in his work clothing. Ed's grades had improved a lot and if he put a little more effort he could have gone to a community college as well, but Ed didn't care about going to college. He was happy with staying in Peach Creek and with his job at the comic book shop. Both of Marie's sisters had gotten jobs in Peach Creek in high school to help their mother with bills. With all the times she's helped her mother it only made sense for Lee to start working at the Diner officially and May had luck where Marie didn't and got a job at the mall's movie theater.

The drive to Lemon Brook took almost an hour but when they finally made it to the city Marie could barely stay in her seat. She has yet to see their new apartment and she couldn't wait very much longer to do so. Their apartment building wasn't in the heart of the city but it was all apartment buildings and shops around them for several blocks.

"Here we are." Edd says pulling into the small parking lot next to a three story red brick building. "You ready to see the apartment?" He asks putting his car into park.

"I've been ready since last month." Marie says before opening her door and jumping out of the car.

Edd lets out a little laugh at Marie's enthusiasm and exits the car himself. He walks around to the back of the car and opens the trunk to retrieve the box he wanted to show Marie in their apartment.

"What's in the box?" Marie asks as Edd closes the trunk.

"It's a surprise for when we get up stairs." Edd says as they start to walk towards the entrance to the building.

Inside the building is a small lobby with a hallway leading to the ground floor apartments, a wall full of mail boxes and a stairway leading up to the second floor. Their apartment was on the second floor at the end of the hall and when they reached it Edd pulled out his keys and unlocked the door.

The apartment was a one bedroom one bathroom with very light blue painted walls and hardwood flooring say for in the bathroom and bedroom. To the right of the door on that wall was the door into the bathroom and after that was the bedroom door. To the left of the front door was the kitchen area, with an L shaped counter with the fridge at the end closest to the door and at the other end was a double sink. There is also an island counter in the kitchen parallel to the counter the sinks are in. There was nothing else other than a window on the wall opposite of the door in the main room of the apartment leaving looking very empty.

"I know it's not much, but I do believe it will do for our needs." Edd says setting the box down on the island counter.

Marie didn't think it was "not much", to her it was the greatest place on earth. "Its perfect Double Dee, and do you know why?" She asks turning to look at him.

"Because it's our place?" He asks guessing the answer to her question.

She wraps her arms around his neck and leaning up to kiss him. "Exactly." she says before their lips touch.

Edd wraps his arms around Marie to hug her "To be honest I've been feeling a little worried that you wouldn't like the apartment or that you'd change your mind about living with me."

Marie looks into Edd's eyes. "Don't worry Muffin. Sure everything will be new and different, which is a bit scary, but it's new and different for us together. We will conquer anything that gets in our way as a team." Once again the power of Maries love gave him the strength to kill all the uncertainties he had. "So what's in the box?" She asks letting go of him curious as to what he had brought up for the apartment.

"Well I know that you've never had a proper place to store all your paints and painting tools." Edd says letting go of Marie and turning to open the box. "So I thought you would like a place to keep everything." He says as he pulled another box out of the first one. The second box was a box for a build your own hanging shelf with three shelves on it.

Marie takes the box from him and looks at it. "You didn't have to get this for me Double Dee."

He smiles at her. "I wouldn't be myself if I didn't spoil you sometimes."

"That is true, thank you Muffin." Marie says giving Edd a quick kiss.

He's happy that Marie liked the simple gift he got her. "You're welcome Cupcake."

It took a few trips to bring up all of Marie's things from the car to their apartment and once the car was empty they started the drive back to the cul-de-sack to start moving Edd's possessions to the apartment.

As they drove back down the highway a question came to Marie. "Hey Double Dee, how are we going to move your bed and stuff? I doubt we can fit it all in your car." She asks curious as to how he plans to move the contents of his bedroom.

"I have already gotten Eddy to agree to help with the use of his truck once he is off of work." Edd says telling her his plan.

"I should have known you would have thought of something, you always have a plan."

At Edd's house Edd had all of his boxes stacked neatly against the wall of his room and his bedding was folded up at the head of his disassembled bed. As a Christmas gift his parents had upgraded his twin bed to a full sized bed two years ago, which is going to be very convenient for Edd and Marie as sharing a twin bed would have been quite hard.

Feeling a little nostalgic Marie sits down on Edd's mattress and looks around the room. "You going to miss it here Double Dee?" She asks as Edd picks up a box from the stack.

Edd looks around his room as well. "I think I will, this was my home for most of my life."

She leans back onto her hands. "The cul-de-sack was a fun place to live."

"Yes it was, I don't think I will ever forget all the silly scams Eddy got Ed and I to participate in."

"Or all the times my sisters and me messed with you." Marie says get up off the bed.

"Seeing as I am about to spend everyday with you, I doubt I could ever forget that."

Marie wraps her arms around Edd's neck. "Trust me Muffin, I'll never let you forget." Her wicked smile appears on her face that Edd had come to know will precede something mischievous Marie was planning.

Marie started to kiss Edd deeply while slowly pulling him over to the mattress on the floor. She takes the box out of his hands and drops it onto the floor before she pushed him down onto the mattress. Edd's mind started to go fuzzy as Marie sat on top of him kissing him.

"I love you Double Dee." She whispers to him finally breaking the kiss.

Edd runs his fingers gently accosted Marie's cheek and smiles at her. "I love you too Marie."

"Promise?" She asks as she started to nibble on his ear.

He was getting lost in the sensation of her gentle biting of his ear. "Promise."

"Forever?" she whispers into his ear.

"Forever." He says hugging her fully believing that he will love Marie for the rest of his days.

Marie pushes herself up from Edd's chest and smiles at him with her wicked smile. "You know Double Dee, we're all alone in your house."

Edd expected her to have thought up something she wants to do with him in the empty house. "I guess we are."

"So why don't we have some fun-" She started to say leaning down to him but was cut off by the sound of the front door slamming open.

"Yo Double Dee! I saw your car in the driveway! Me and Lumpy are here to help ya move!" Eddy yells walking into the house.

'So much for having some fun.' Marie thinks getting up off Edd.

"We are up in my room." Edd yells back down at Eddy as he sat up a little disappointed his friends are on time for once.

"Hey man." Eddy says as he walked into Edd's soon to be old bedroom. Eddy's height is still his most lacking feature, besides his own self-image, and still stands almost two feet shorter than Edd. He was dressed in a long sleeved yellow shirt and faded blue jeans both covered in dust from his day of work.

"Hello Eddy, how was your day at work?" Edd asks getting up from the mattress.

A look of discus crosses Eddy face. "Horrible, I hate this job."

"It's better than being a burger flipper isn't it?" Marie asks as she got up from the bed.

Eddy was glad that he was no longer working fast food. "Oh heck yeah." He says agreeing with his best friend's girlfriend.

"Where is Ed?" Edd asks noticing that the tallest of the three Ed's isn't with Eddy.

Eddy points over his shoulder with his thumb. "Lumpy is down stairs still, the big baby has been all sobby sense I picked him up."

Edd looks past Eddy to the hallway. "Oh dear." Ed has been in a very sad state since the day Edd had told him he was going to move away, and Edd guessed this day is going to be the hardest for Ed.

Eddy picks up the box Marie had taken out of Edd's hands. "Well we aren't going to get you out of here standing around."

Marie and Edd both grabbed a box and the three walk down the stairs to the ground floor to find Ed looking off into the living room lost in thought.

"Hello Ed." Edd says when the three reached the bottom of the stairs.

Ed seems to have been locked in time, his height hasn't changed. He still has the same pair of glasses and still wears his old green coat over a red shirt and blue jeans.

Ed turned to face his friends. "Hey guys." He says sound sad like he has been for a while.

"Thank you Ed, and you too Eddy for helping us today." Edd says thanking his friend for the help they are giving him.

Ed cracks a halfhearted smile. "No problem Double Dee, it's what friends are for."

Eddy not wanting Ed to start sobbing again pushed the box he had in his hands. "Stick this in Double Dee's car and then help me get his dresser down the stairs." He says taking his friends mind off the topic of Edd moving.

As Eddy and Ed worked to get Edd's furniture out of the room, Edd and Marie worked on talking the boxes of his things down and put them into Edd's car. After an hour or so of working they had all the boxes, nightstand and lamp in Edd's car and his bed, desk, dresser, book shelf and desk chair loaded up in the back of Eddy's truck.

Tying down the last rope being used to keep everything in place Eddy says; "I'm amazed we were able to get it all in."

"Planning where everything will go will do that Eddy." Edd says closing his car's trunk.

"Always thinking three steps ahead aren't you Double Dee." Eddy says making a jab at Edd's OCD's.

Edd opens the driver's side door of his car. "That I am Eddy."

Eddy opens the driver's door on his truck. "Ok so we'll follow you down to Lemmon Brook."

"Very well, I will do my best to lead you Eddy." Edd says as he entered his car.

Marie was starting to feel a little tired and hungry as they drove down the highway for the third time for the day. Yawning she says; "I'm getting a bit hungry Double Dee."

"Once we get everything up to the apartment well get something to eat." Edd says as he looked over at his girlfriend who's gone to slouching in her seat.

As he looked at her Edd couldn't help by smile at the sight of the blue haired girl sitting next to him.

Marie spots him smiling at her and smiling back at him. "Love ya handsome."

"I love you too beautiful." He says returning her compliment.

"Nice place you guys got here Double Dee." Eddy says following Edd into the apartment carrying a few of the drawers from Edd's dresser.

Edd turns on the lights in the kitchen, being the only light in the apartment at the moment. "Thank you Eddy, we'll be sure to invite you over once we have it looking like a proper home."

"You are going to have to have a few parties now that you are free from your parents." Eddy says as he set down the drawers onto the floor.

"Seeing as they are paying half of the rent, I don't think I'm fully free of them yet Eddy." Edd says as Marie and Ed walk into the apartment.

"And who says I'm going to let you come up here and make a mess of our home?" Marie asks putting down the box of Edd's things she had brought up to the apartment.

"What makes you think I'd trash the place?" Eddy asks wanting to know the reasons behind Marie thinking he would make a mess in the apartment.

Marie points at him. "The fact that you have trashed almost everything in the cul-de-sack when you were pulling all those scams."

"She's got you there Eddy, the three of us have caused quite a lot of disturbances in our youth." Edd says agreeing with Marie.

"Yeah, but when was the last time I messed anything up?" Eddy asks as the group walked out of the apartment.

"Well there was the hole you dug yourself into with Lee years ago." Marie says as they walked down the hall.

"And there was the whole incident with us running away to your brothers'." Edd says recalling his least favorite memory from their childhood.

"That was all years ago, I've grown up sense then." Eddy says trying to defend himself.

Ed pats Eddy on the head as they walked down the stairs. "He does have a point Edd. Our little Eddy is a big boy now."

Eddy smacks Ed's hand away. "You guys are a couple of asses."

"Were just messing with you Eddy, we know you have matured over the past few years." Edd says as they reached the ground floor.

As Edd opens the front door of the building for her and his friends Marie says; "You three remind me of my sisters and me sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Edd asks as everyone walked out into the parking area of the building

"How you pick on each other all the time but you would do anything to help each other. It's just like how we are." Marie explains what she meant.

"Heh, maybe that's why we were all eventually drawn together." Edd says as he unlocked his car so they could get more boxes out.

"That and me awakening the love you always had for me." Marie says quiet enough for only Edd to hear as he handed her a box from his car.

"And I am forever glad that you did." He says before giving her a quick kiss.

As Edd and Marie brought the boxes of Edd's things into the apartment, Eddy and Ed carried up Edd's furniture.

"Where do you want us to put the mattresses Double Dee?" Eddy asks as he and Ed pulled Edd's mattress out of the back of his truck.

"Just leave it against one of the walls please Eddy." Edd says pulling the last box out of his car.

"Alright Lumpy let's get this up the stairs." Eddy says as Ed and him start walking to the front door of the building.

Edd quickly walked over to the front door to open the door for his best friends. "Let me get the door for you."

"Thanks bro." Eddy says as they he walked backwards through the door holding the mattress.

"You are quite welcome Eddy." Edd says as Ed walked through the door himself.

"Well this is the last of it." Eddy says setting down the last piece of Edd's bed frame. "So I guess that's that then." He says as he looked around the apartment full of Edd and Marie's possessions.

Edd looks from one of his friends to the other. "It is. Well goodbye Eddy, goodbye Ed."

Ed who has been quiet for most of the day, partly because he was looking forward to watching movies with May and is sad she canceled, but mostly he's been quiet because he was sad that one of his best friends move away from the cul-de-sack. He's been able to hold back his sadness of the day, but when Edd said goodbye to him and Eddy he lost it. "Oh Double Dee! I am going to miss you!" Ed yells grabbing both Edd and Eddy into one of his bear hugs.

"I'm going to miss you too Ed." Edd says as Ed squeezed him and Eddy.

Eddy tries to pull Ed's arm from around himself. "Calm down Ed, it's not like he moved across the country. He's just an hour away."

Ed squeezing them tighter. "You have to come and visit us all the time Double Dee."

Edd starts to struggle to breath under Ed's death grip. "I will try to Ed, but I will be starting school up here soon and I will need to find a job to pay for my part of the rent."

"Then I will come and visit you Double Dee, we are the three amigos forever." Ed says not seeing his friends struggling against the hug.

Eddy gives up on his fight against Ed's strength. "Yeah Yeah Ed, we'll always be friends."

"We are more than friends, we're brothers Eddy." Ed says letting his grip slip.

"Yes we are Ed. Now I want you to promise me that you will stay strong and keep Eddy from doing anything crazy now that I can't keep an eye on him." Edd says taking a deep and needed breath.

Ed finally lets go of Edd and Eddy. "I will Double Dee."

Eddy slaps Edd on the back and looks over at the love of one of his best friends. "Take good care of our boy Marie. He's a bit of a push over, but don't go taking advantage of that."

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of him." Marie says holding back a laugh at Ed's affection for his friends.

Eddy snaps his fingers. "Oh I just remembered, my folks gave me something to give you. It's still in the truck, come on." He says turning to walk out of the apartment.

"I will be right back Marie, and then we can do something about dinner." Edd says to Marie before he followed Ed and Eddy.

Down in the parking lot Eddy opened the door to his truck and pulled a box out of it. "My parents thought you could use one of these for your new pad." He says holding the box out to Edd.

The cover of the box showed that it was a new microwave which was something Edd knew he would need to obtain for his new home. "Thank you Eddy, this is something that we need." Edd says looking from the box in his hands to Eddy.

Eddy closes his door. "No problem man."

Edd looks up at the building. "I should get back upstairs, Marie and I still need to eat."

"Then I guess this is goodbye then." Eddy says sticking his hands into his pockets.

Edd knew that Eddy was not very good at sharing how he felt, but Edd could tell that Eddy was sad about Edd moving away from Peach Creek. "Let's not call this goodbye gentlemen, it's just a "see you guys later"." Edd says as he shifted the microwave to under one arm had held out his free hand in a fist as an offer for a fist bump from Eddy.

Eddy touches his fist against Edd's with a smile on his face. "Yeah, later man."

Ed adds his own fist to the bump. "Until the next installment of our adventures."

"Well said Ed." Edd says looking up at his almost seven foot friend.

"Now get going man, your princess is waiting for you." Eddy says pulling his keys from his pocket.

Laughing Edd says. "She is anything but a princess." Before he turned away from his friends.

"Don't do anything crazy without us." Eddy yelled at Edd.

"How could I do anything crazy when you're taking all the crazy with you?" Edd yelled back stopping and turning back around.

"That's a mean thing to say about Ed Double Dee." Eddy says getting into his truck.

"I think he was talking about you Eddy." Ed says getting into the passenger side of the truck.

As Edd walks away from his friends chuckling he heard Eddy say; "I know that Lumpy, I was just joking" Edd was going to miss Eddy and Ed now that he was living in Lemon Brook, but he knows that they're just a phone call away, so if he does end up missing them to the point that he needs to see his two best friends again he can.

When Edd walks into the apartment he sees Marie sitting on top of the counter in the kitchen talking on her cell phone while looking at a pamphlet. "What's the address here Double Dee?" She asks looking up from the pamphlet to him.

"7128 East 9th street. Why do you ask?" Edd says telling her the address of the apartment building.

"Ok, the address is 7128 East 9th street and its apartment number 205." Marie says into her phone telling whoever she was talking to the address of the apartment. "Ok, alright, thanks." She says before ending the call.

"May I ask what that was about?" Edd asks wondering who she was talking to.

Marie holds up the pamphlet to him revealing it to be an order menu for a Chinese restaurant. "I found this door hanger on one of the other doors on the hall and I thought some Chinese delivery would be good for dinner."

"That a good idea, what did you order?" He asks wondering what she ordered for them to eat.

She jumps off the counter. "Some orange chicken, egg rolls and some rice."

"That sounds good, thank you Marie."

"Not going to scold me for jacking the menu off someone else's door?" She asks as he sets the microwave down on the counter.

"Um… Na, being bad is part of who you are and you wouldn't be the girl I love if you weren't a bad girl." Edd says smiling at his girlfriend.

"Evil and love do go hand in hand, so what's in the box?" She asks looking at the box Edd had brought into the apartment.

"Eddy's parents gave us a microwave as a gift."

"That was cool of them."

"Yes it was, one less thing we will need to acquire for our home." It was the first Edd has called the apartment "our home", and hearing him say that made Marie feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. She grabs Edd and pulls him into a deep kiss.

When she finally let go of Edd his head was a little fuzzy from her kiss, something that happens quite often when Marie is more aggressive with her affection for Edd. "I had no idea you like microwaves that much." He says resting his hands on her hips and smiling at her.

"I didn't kiss you because of the nuker, I kissed you cause it was the first time you called the apartment our home. It's just so surreal, if someone had told fourteen year old me that in such a short amount of time I would be standing here with you holding me in our own apartment I wouldn't believe them."

He pulls Marie into a hug. "And yet here we are, and I wouldn't trade this moment, or any of them to come for anything."

Marie returns the hug and rests the side of her head on Edd's shoulder. "Today has been a very touchy feely day hasn't it?" She asks thinking of all the times in this day alone that her, Edd or their friends and family had acted in a way that would have been described as touchy and or feely.

Edd lets out a little laugh. "A big move can do that to people."

While they waited for their dinner to arrive they worked on moving stuff around the apartment. They moved Edd's nightstand and bed frame into the bedroom, moved his L shaped desk into the corner across from the bedroom door and were about to move his mattress into the bedroom when there was a knock on the door.

"That must be our dinner." Edd says as Marie and him stop from picking up the mattress from the floor.

Marie dropped down onto the mattress while Edd walked over to the door. "That was quick, if the food is good we may have a regular place to order from."

"Thank you for paying for the food Muffin." Marie says as Edd sat down next to her on the mattress.

"You're welcome Cupcake." Edd says opening the paper bag that contained their food.

Inside the bag is two little triangular boxes, one of rice and the other full of the orange chicken and a third square box contains the four egg rolls.

"I wish we had some plates, it would make this a little easier." Edd says as he pulls the boxes out of the bag.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you!" Marie jumps off the mattress and ran over to the stack of her boxes. "My mom gave us some plates and stuff." She says picking up a box from the pile.

"Wow, that's really nice of her Marie." He says as Marie sets the box down on the floor by the mattress.

Marie opens the box. "It helps that she likes you as much as she does."

Inside of the box was several plates, bowls and mugs all of different color and shapes.

Pulling out a round red plate and a green square one Marie says; "They are all mismatched but I didn't think it would be that big of a deal."

He takes the green plate from her as she sat back down next to him. "That is completely fine Marie, I couldn't say no to your mother giving us something even if I didn't like it."

"Good, I'd hate to have to punish you for not accepting my mom's gift." She says smiling at Edd as he used a pair of chopsticks he found in the bottom of the bag to serve out some food onto the plate Marie had in her hands.

Edd laughs at her threat of punishing him. "I know never to cross a Kanker."

*Yawn.* "I don't want any more Double Dee." Marie says setting her plate down on the floor.

Edd picks up Marie's place from the floor. "I have also had my fill." Then walks over to the sink to rinse them off.

"Have I ever told you that I love your choices of words?" Marie says as Edd turned on the water.

"Several times, but I still think it's cute every time you say you do." He says running water over the plates to clean off the bits of food.

She picks up the boxes of food and takes them over to the fridge. "Everything you do is cute." The fridge was a standard Freezer on top and figuration on the bottom fridge. She opens the bottom door and puts the three boxes into the empty fridge. "Well I'm ready to call it a night." She says before she lets out another yawn.

"Would you like to move the bed into the bedroom before we turn in for the night?" He asks walking over to the mattress.

She picks up her music box from the counter where she had put it to keep it safe as they brought stuff into the apartment. "Na, lets crash out here for the night." Marie has been keeping all of her momentous from her relationship with Edd inside the music box and when she sets it down next to the mattress and opens it so she could put her necklace away Edd sees all the various things inside of it.

"Glad to know I'm not the only one that's kept all kinds of little reminders." He says looking over the things inside the music box. "But what is the nut from?" He asks not recognizing where the bolt nut is from.

Marie picks up the old nut. "You mean you don't remember where this came from?"

"I feel like I should." He says straining his memory for where it could be from.

"This." She says putting the nut in Edd's hand. "Is your wedding ring from when we got married." She says smiling at him.

"Wait, you mean that one time when Ed, Eddy and I went into the abandoned house and you and your sisters trapped us and had that fake wedding?" he asks looking from the nut to her.

"Heh Heh, yeah."

"That seems like it was such a long time ago."

Marie leans against Edd who was sitting behind her. "It was a whole different world back them."

"You do know that it wasn't legal in any way right?" He asks giving the nut back to her.

She puts the Nut back into the music box where it belongs. "Yeah I know, you didn't even propose like a proper gentleman would have."

"Um, I didn't… that is at the time I." Edd started to feel a little panicky at the thought of Marie wanting him to propose to her then and now.

"Don't worry Muffin. Who's to say I want to ever get married? I'd have to give up the name Kanker to do that." Marie guessed that Edd was starting to over think her joke, but she knew that if there was anyone she would give up the name Kanker for it was Edd and only Edd.

Edd felt relieved that Marie seemed to have been joking. "Being a Kanker is part of who you are, I could never ask you to give that up."

"For now." She says quickly.

"I'm sorry, Marie I didn't catch that."

She smiles glad that he didn't hear what she said. "It's nothing."

Edd figured it was nothing that she had said and gets up off the bed and holds a hand out to her "Ok, well if you want you can change into sleeping cloths in the bedroom while I prepare the mattress."

She takes his hand, still enjoying the offer of a help up like she did when they started dating. "Is that an invitation to sleep commando?" She asks in a seductive tone.

Had it been sixteen year old Edd that she had asked he probably would have turned as red as a tomato from embarrassment and start to stutter at the very thought of seeing Marie in her birthday suite. But the past years spent with her had matured his mind. "Well if you want to you can, but it might be a bit odd seeing as I plan on going to bed fully clothed." He says smiling knowing that he's turned her joke back onto her.

She lets go of his hand and starts to walk over to the bedroom. "Yeah I guess you are right. I'll just go throw on some shorts them." At the door she stops and turns to him with her most seductive look. "Some SHORT shorts maybe." She says knowing her legs were one of her features that he enjoys the most before walking into the room.

Edd's face had turned red at the thought of Marie in short shorts. "She will always know how to get the reaction she wants from us Eddward." He says picking up his pillow and comforter from on top of his pile of boxes.

Marie had changed into a pair of green pajama shorts and a black tank top and while Edd was changing in the bedroom she wound up her music box to listen to the song and to add some sound to the apartment.

Neither she nor Edd were nervous about sleeping together, having taken several naps together over the years. But other than a very special camping trip they took alone together during the summer after 11th grade they've never spent a full night together since "our weekend", which is what they have come to call the few life changing days they spent together trapped inside their high school.

Sitting crossed legged on Edd's green comforter Marie listened to the chimes of the music box playing "You are my Sunshine". 'New life, new rules Marie.' She thinks enjoying the song she has listen to so much she knows it by heart. 'We're not a kid anymore, well legally we still are for a week but we can't expect to have someone else doing stuff for us. We need to find a job so we can help Double Dee with rent and bills. And with his lack of cooking skills it's going to fall on us to not live off of frozen food. Though I could teach him some of the basics recipes I know to help him, but he is the one going to school too so we should also expect to have the most free time. Wow look at us, we are thinking like a housewife, I don't mind it though, keeping this place from looking like a pig pen like the trailer did will be easy.' She thinks getting lost in space as the sound of the song carried her mind away.

While she was thinking Edd had come out of the bedroom in a full set of button up yellow pajamas and has sat down next to her. "What you thinking about?" He asks seeing her looking off into the distance.

Breaking her trance she turns to him. "All kinds of stuff about our new life here in Lemon Brook."

He too had been thinking on this topic as he changed. "I know a lot is going to change and the free time I will have will be minimal once I start school, but I want you to know that I don't want you doing all the chores on your own. This is our place and I will do my share, I've even been reading up on some meals I could prepare for us as well. They are nothing fancy but I know my novice cooking skills are fine for them."

Grinning at him and his always looking at the big picture mindset she says; "I was just thinking about how I'd need to help out more than you would because of you going off to school."

"That wouldn't be very fair of me." He says before grabbing one edge of the comforter to pull it back so they could get under it.

Grabbing the other end of the comforter and pulling it back with Edd she says; "I know, I just want to do everything I can to make this work."

They get under the comforter and pull it over themselves. "It will work Marie, I promise you." He says as he lies down on his back like how he normally sleeps.

Marie scoots over to lay partly accosted Edd with her head resting on his chest. "I know this will work Edd." She says using his real name. "We'll show your parents that they are wrong about this." She says closing her eyes.

Edd was about to close his own eyes when he spotted the light in the kitchen was still on "Oh shoot, the light. Sorry Marie, I will be right back."

Marie laughed as Edd got up and rushed over to the switch on the wall. Normally when she'd be in the dark Marie would start to panic due to her fear of the dark. But when Edd flipped the switch off she only felt a little ping of fear until Edd reentered the bed and she got her arm back around him and he put both of his around her. When she was with Edd the dark didn't have its sway over her.

Letting out a long happy sigh enjoying the sound of Edd's heart in one ear and her music box in the other Marie says; "I love you Double Dee."

Edd leans down and kisses Marie on the top of her head. "I love you too Marie." He says resting his head back down onto the pillow 'From now to the end of everything.' He adds in his mind before adding vocally; "And good night Cupcake."

"Good night to you too Muffin." Marie responds back to him already feeling her mind drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

The first night in the apartment was one of the best nights Marie has ever had. Holding Edd and listening to his heart beat as she drifted off to sleep filled her dreams with thoughts of him and all the things they could do in Lemon Brook together. Like finding all of those little hole in the wall shops that always have good food, waking up late on the weekends and not getting yelled at by her sisters, and the one thing she liked the most was the fact that every day she will be waking up next to the boy she had spent years chasing.

But now that she was thinking about Edd she realizes that she is alone in the bed. She snaps her eyes open and quickly sits up and looks around trying to find Edd. As she looked around for Edd she hears the sound of running water coming from the bathroom and it clicked in her mind that Edd must have woken up before her and went to take a shower.

"I should have known he'd be the first one up, he never really sleeps in." She says pulling the covers off herself.

Standing up Marie stretches and looks out the window and see that that sun was high in the sky. "Damn, how late is it?"

"About eleven I believe." Edd says walking out of the bathroom fully dressed with his toothbrush in hand.

Edds' sudden appearance surprised Marie a little. "Damn, we did sleep for a while." She says turning to face her boyfriend. "Good morning Double Dee by the way."

Smiling at the love of his life with a severe case of bed head so bad Edd could see both of her blue eyes he says; "Good morning to you too Marie, the shower is all yours."

She quickly walks over to Edd and stopped him from putting the toothbrush into his mouth and leans up to give him a deep kiss.

When she finally broke the kiss Edd felt the usual light headed effect from Marie's more aggressive kisses. "That is going to be a daily thing isn't it?" He asks barely stopping himself from dropping his toothbrush.

Smiling and hugging him she says; "Yes it is"

"Then it's a good thing I enjoy it." He says before hugging her back.

Inside the bathroom with the black towel she took as hers from the trailer and the bag full of bathroom things she prepares for her own first shower in the apartment. The bathroom was bigger than the one that was in the trailer, it has a sliding glass door for the tub in the corner and a wall blocking the toilet from the sink and mirror and a small linen closet on the far right side of the counter. As she puts her things away she starts to smile again, it was a little one at first but it would grow little by little as she put her things next to Edds. Back at the trailer she didn't care for any organization in the bathroom, but now here with him she took her time putting her toothbrush in the stand next to his, setting her hair brush besides his on the counter and putting her stick of deodorant away in the medicine cabinet. Though she just dumped her few pieces of makeup into one of the empty drawers figuring Edd wouldn't care that much if she took a drawer for her makeup.

When she finished her shower it dawned on her that she didn't bring a change of clothes with her. "Crud." She says as she finished drying herself off. "Only one thing to do really."

She wraps the towel around herself and tucks the corner in so it would stay up, and once she was sure it would keep her covered on the few feet walk to the bedroom door she grabs the door knob. 'This is going to shock him.' She thinks before opening the door.

In the main area of the apartment Edd sees Marie walk out of the bathroom in just a towel and he quickly turns around to face the wall of the kitchen to give her some privacy. "Forgot to bring cloths with you?" He asks feeling his cheeks turning a little red from the sight of Marie in nothing but a towel.

"I did." She says quickly walking to the bedroom.

Still not turning around to look at her Edd says; "Well I'll warm up the leftovers when you are finish getting dressed for breakfast."

"K." He hears Marie says before she closed the door to the bedroom.

As Marie got dressed Edd finished setting up what little they had for kitchen things. He put the other four of the six plates away in one of the empty cupboards with the six blows next to them and the six mugs on the shelf above the plates and bowls. Despite all of his OCD's Edd likes that all of the plates, bowls and mugs are miss match, adds a little character to the kitchen. Next he takes the new microwave out of its box and sets it on the counter against the same wall the fridge was against.

As he worked on unwrapping the glass turntable plate for inside Marie walked out of the bedroom fully dressed with her shoes in hand. "That carpet must be new in the bedroom." She says walking over to the mattress on the floor.

"What do you mean?" Edd asks closing the door to the microwave.

Marie drops down onto the mattes to put on her shoes. "The carpet is all soft and fuzzy, it felt good on my bare feet walking around on it."

Edd lets out a little laugh. "Maybe it is, it would make sense to replace it for new residents." He says as he plugged in the one addition he did known that Marie had brought for the apartment.

Marie had gone to a thrift store and bought a second hand, thought by the looks of it they may be the third or even fourth owners, coffee make for the apartment. One thing the both of them had grown quite fond of, besides spending as much time as they could with each other, was coffee. Marie wanted there to be a coffee make available to use as soon as they were moved in despite how "mainstream" coffee drinking had become, something that Lee would give her a hard time about whenever she would see Marie drinking coffee. But Marie nor Edd cared what people said about them drinking coffee, they enjoyed it and really enjoyed drinking coffee together.

"You think that old thing will be the death of us? You know starting an eclectic fire and all." Marie asks crossing her arms on the island counter of the kitchen.

Opening the fridge door to retrieve the leftover Chinese food from the previous night he says; "I doubt it, but if it will make you feel better I can disassemble it later today to make sure that everything is in proper working order."

Watching Edd take out the white boxes and then dump the contents onto plates Marie responds to his request. "Is that you solely wanting to keep us from burning down our new home, or do you also want to take it apart for the sake of taking it apart?"

"It wouldn't be the first coffee make I have disassembled, but you know that I could never turn down the opportunity to take something apart." He says being honest with her as he closed the microwave door.

Marie lets out a laugh. "I knew it. Go ahead Double Dee, take that old thing apart to keep us safe and have fun doing it." She says as a smile crosses her face as he turned around to face her with his own smile on his face.

"Before I even think of taking it apart, there is one serious thing we need to take care of first."

Curious as to what he was talking about she asks; "What do you mean?"

"We need to find a local supermarket to acquire food, and a lot of other things as well." Edd says as a list of things form in his head.

Marie knew Edd was right. "Yeah we do need to pretend to be adults and do the grown up thing." She says hoping that she still had a little more time before she'd have to set foot inside of a grocery store.

As they sat eating the leftover food they worked together making a list of things they knew they needed to get for the apartment on Edd's phone. The bulk of the list was food; bread, fruits, milk and other things but they also needed to acquire things that were not food items.

"We are also going to need to get some cooking stuff." Marie says as Edd typed on his phone.

"True, we'll need a couple of pots and a frying pan." Edd says adding them to his list.

"And spoons, forks and knifes."

"And cooking utensils as well."

Once they were done naming off everything they believed they needed to find at the store they cleaned up the kitchen and gathered up their pocket things; phones, keys and wallets.

"Damn that list got long fast." Marie says picking up the empty plate from the counter.

Edd saves the list on his phone then puts it away. "It is, but a lot of the things on it are one time buys."

She lets out a sigh. "Yeah, this is going to be a long trip isn't it?" She asks already dreading going into a grocery store.

Edd knows how much Marie hated her old job. "It is, but it's not your old work so won't see anyone you know." He says trying to reassure her about the trip to the store.

"I doubt they would let me back into that place." Marie says remembering the less than peaceful last day she had at her old job.

It took them about thirty minutes of driving around Lemon Brook to find a grocery store.

"Damn this place is freaking huge!" Marie exclaims as they walk through the sliding double doors of the large building.

Looking around at the store Edd says; "It must be one of those super stores, you know they have groceries on one half and then the other half has everything else you would need to buy from a store."

"It must be, looks at the size of these carts." Marie says as they walk further into the store.

The shopping carts were almost twice the size of normal shopping carts Marie remembers from her old job. "Oh my, you could fit a full grown adult in one of these." Edd says pulling one of the super carts out of the row of them.

"That an invitation?" Marie asks as they walk past the cart stall.

Grinning Edd steps to the side of the cart. "If you want to take a ride I won't stop you." He says cuping his hands together to give her a help up into the cart.

Marie giggles the whole time she steps on Edd's hands and into the cart. She hadn't expected Edd to run with her joke, but she never passes up the opportunity to have fun with Edd, regardless if she looks silly doing so.

"Ready?" Edd asks once Marie was sitting down in the cart.

Pointing in front of them she says; "Onward for food." Causing Edd to let out a laugh.

As they went around the store Edd would pick things on the list off the shelves and set them in the cart next to Marie. Eventually she did have to get out of the cart as it was getting to full.

"Sorry your ride is over." Edd says as he helps Marie out of the cart.

Making sure she didn't step on any of the stuff in the cart while she held Edd's hand she says; "Its ok Double Dee, it was fun while it lasted." She jumps out of the cart and lands next to Edd. "Plus now I can grab stuff I want, like this big bag of tots." She adds opening a door to a freezer to grab a three pound bag of tater tots.

Now that she wasn't in the shopping cart Marie went from just watching Edd push her around and picking up the items from the list to gathering items off it with him.

They had started on the food end of the store and have slowly been making their way up and down every aisle filling the cart. Every so often Marie would stop Edd and give him a kiss or would walk up behind him and start nibbling in his ear.

Edd had learned that public displays of affection was one of the many thing Marie enjoyed doing and even though the store was packed with other Sunday shoppers who would stare at them with questioning looks Edd let her play around none the less, never mind the fact that Edd himself enjoyed her affection too.

While Edd knew of the basics needed to stocks the apartment with food, it was Marie that was making sure they had all the little things they would need, like sugar, salt and coffee filters.

"It's a good thing I have you with me Marie, I could have ended up without the important small things needed for the apartment." he says as Marie looked over the shelf of tin containers of spices.

Marie grabs a few she knows they would use. "It's all thanks to all the times Mom sent me to get stuff for her when I was younger." She says dropping the half dozen containers into the slowly filling shopping cart. "But don't give me all the credit, if it was up to me I would just buy bags of tots and stuff to make ham sandwiches." She adds as they start walking down the aisle.

When they finally reached the end of the side of the store that had food and went into the non-food section the cart was two thirds full of all kinds of food they were getting for the apartment.

"Should we get a big pack of paper or something smaller?" Edd asks Marie as he looked at the shelf full of differ brands and sizes of toilet paper.

"A six pack should be plenty, an answer I never thought I would have to give you." Marie says a little amazed that she just told Edd what size pack of toilet paper they should get.

Edd picks up a six pack of toilet paper and adds it to the cart. "It is a question I never have thought I'd need to ask you myself."

"All part of us being responsible adults huh?" Marie asks as Edd started to push the cart down the aisle.

Edd has always thought of himself as a responsible person and he knew Marie will be responsible too now that they were out of high school and the demands for responsibility was higher. "That it is, I for see that all kinds of silly little questions and requests will be made." He says as Marie takes his right hand off the cart and laces her fingers together and puts her own right hand on the cart to help push it with Edd.

"As long as I'm with you, no question or request is silly." She says before kissing him on the cheek.

"Look at this one Double Dee. It has everything we need and it's blue." Marie says holding up a large box with pictures of all of the cookware it had in it.

Edd takes the box from her and looks it over himself. The set has a saucepan, a large pot, frying pan, a full set of knifes and several cooking utensils all for a reasonable price. "This should do perfectly." He says adding the box to the cart.

"Oh look! Matching cutlery!" Marie adds picking up a four piece set of fork, knives and spoons that have handles the same color as the cooking set Edd just added to their cart.

"Let's get those too then." Edd says finding Marie's excitement over the color of the sets a little funny.

"Yay! Thank you Muffin." Marie says kissing Edd on the cheek as she set the box of silverware in the cart.

With their shopping done Edd and Marie wait in the checkout lines for their turn to pay for everything they filled the shopping cart with. Like she used to do in high school while waiting in the lunch line Marie had pulled Edd's arms around herself and was leaning against his chest. Originally it was just a way Marie would show the other kids in the school that Edd was hers and hers alone, but now it was just something she does when Edd and her are in any line together.

"What should we do for lunch Double Dee?" She asks turning her head to look up at Edd.

Edd takes a well-rehearsed awkward step forward while still holding Marie "Probably something simple, maybe some sandwiches."

"And coffee, we need to make our first batch of coffee" She adds catching an older gentleman rolling his eyes at Edd and her.

Edd also sees the older gentleman looking at them and tightens his grip on Marie as a way to show that he doesn't care if people see them standing together like they are. "We'll make some coffee too."

"You got the stools Double Dee?" Marie asks as Edd and her finish unloading the cart of everything they had picked out from the vast selection of items the store had to offer.

"I got them." Edd says pulling a pair of boxes out from the bottom of the cart.

When they were walking past the furniture section they spotted some bar stools that you have to put together yourself and they figured a pair of them would be good to pick up for sitting at the island counter in the kitchen.

With the cart emptied Marie and Edd see just how much stuff they had. "Damn, we did some hardcore shopping." Marie says before taking out her cell phone to see what time it was. "Holly balls! We've been in here for almost two hours."

Edd takes out his pocket watch and see that they have in fact been inside the store for the better part of two hours. "Oh my, we were in here for a long time." He says putting his watch away. He then looks at all the stuff on the register belt and makes a quick calculation of the cost of everything. "Hum… I figure its two hundred fifty seven dollars and sixty nine cents in total." He says telling Marie how much he thinks everything will cost.

Marie knows that Edd excels at all things math and believed his guess. "Sticking with that amount?" She asks joking around with him as the clerk started to ring up their items.

"Yes I am." He says catching the sound of sarcasm in her voice.

"And what if you're wrong?" Marie asks still joking around with him.

Grinning with confidence in himself he says; "IF I am wrong, then I will carry everything up to the apartment including you."

Marie likes the idea of Edd carrying her up to the apartment, even if the chances of his guess is almost nonexistent. "Deal." She says as she hopped that for once Edd had made an error in his addition.

"Two fifty seven, sixty nine is your balance." The clerk says totaling up the order.

'Damn' Marie thinks watching her chance of being carried up to the apartment fly out the metaphorical window.

"Told you." Edd says smiling at Marie as he pulls out his wallet.

Smiling back at him while hiding the small amount of disappointment she has Marie says; "I never said you were wrong."

Edd pulls out his bank card and was halfway through handing it to the clerk to pay for everything himself when Marie grabs his hand. "Let me pay for half Double Dee." She says stopping him from handing his card to the clerk.

"I don't mind Marie."

"I know you want to be a gentleman and pay for it all, but this is for our home Double Dee. And we have to share everything, including the cost of food." She says lowering his hand and looking him in the eye with a serious look on her face.

He did want to be a gentleman and pay for everything, but she did have a point about them sharing everything. "Ok Marie, we'll split the cost."

Happy that Edd is letting her help Marie pulls out her own wallet. "Thank you Muffin." She says pulling her own card out of her wallet.

"Put just a hundred and twenty on her card pleases." Edd says before Marie could tell the clerk a different amount.

Marie looks up at Edd. "You have to be the more generous one don't you?"

"I wouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't take the larger part of the payment."

Marie leaded up and gave Edd a quick kiss. "You are lucky that I love you so much."

"And with these two that marks the last of the bags." Edd says setting down the last of the paper bags of their shopping. Even though Edd didn't lose the little bet he still carried up most of the bag to the apartment.

"Never again should we do that big of a shopping trip Double Dee." Marie says laying on Edd's mattress where she had dropped down after she'd set down the last bags she had brought up.

Edd walks over and sits down next to her. "A little worn out?" He asks looking down at her.

She scoots over and rests her head on Edd's leg. "A bit, and I think I have a little PTSD from watching them bag up our stuff."

Petting her hair gently he asks; "Because you never liked your old job, or because they did a poor job?"

With a laugh she says; "Just watching them work. Knowing that I could quit that job was one of the many reasons that I loved this move here."

Edd also laughs. "It is good to know that you have several reasons for liking our move."

"And most of them are right here." She says reaching up and pokes Edd in the chest with her index finger.

Edd takes her hand and kisses it. "Your most of my reasons too Marie."

Marie felt her cheeks turn a little red from the gentle kiss he gave her hand. "You are so freaking adorable Edd." She says sitting up on the mattress.

Still holding her hand and looking at her with a loving smile Edd says; "You are adorable as well Marie."

Feeling her love for Edd take over Marie jumps at him and quickly has him pinned to the bed. "I love you so damn much Edd." She says before giving him a long and deep kiss.

Edd was shocked by the attack but didn't try at all to stop Marie, he just relaxed and kissed her back.

After several minutes of laying on his mattress kissing Marie Edd rolls her off of on top of him. "As much as I hate to stop you Marie, we need to stop and put away our perishable grocers before they spoil." He says sitting up.

Marie lets out a long sigh disappointed that he was right and their fun needed to end so they could put the food away before the cold items became too warm and go bad.

"I'm sorry Marie." Edd says as he pulls his shirt back into place.

Marie sits up herself and adjusting her own clothing. "Its fine, we do need to make sure our food doesn't go bad."

Together they worked on putting away their shopping, which was taking longer than it should because Marie kept distracting Edd with kissing him and other acts of flirtation. After all this time Marie is still a little forceful with Edd, but not as much as she used to be.

"Can you put these on top of the fridge for me pleases Muffin?" Marie asks holding out two boxes of different cereal to Edd.

"Sure." Edd says taking the boxes from her.

"Thank you Double Dee." She says folding up an empty paper bag. She hasn't noticed it herself, but Edd has noticed that her manners have improved a lot since they started dating, leaps and bounds in comparison to her sisters.

Once the food was put away Edd made them some sandwiches while Marie brewed a pot of coffee.

"Here we are Double Dee, our first batch of coffee made with PF." Marie says holding a mug of coffee out to Edd who was closing up the bag of deli meat they had gotten at the store.

"PF?" He asks taking the mug curios as to what Marie meant.

"Potential Fire hazard. It's what I chose to name the coffee maker." She says before taking a drink from her own mug of coffee.

"Oh." Edd says with a laugh. "That is a fitting name for the coffee maker." He takes his first sip of the coffee. "Mmm, that is pretty good." He says enjoying the coffee.

"If I know one thing about coffee, it is that the Swedes know their coffee."

"You were right, it was definitely worth buying that Swedish brand of coffee." Edd says before taking a full drink of the coffee.

Setting down her mug and picking up her sandwich Marie says; "Thanks for making the sandwiches by the way Double Dee." Before taking a bite out of the ham and cheese sandwich.

Picking up his own sandwich, cut in perfect triangles, Edd smiles and says; "To our first official homemade meal." Holding up the peace of sandwich as a toast.

"To our first meal." She says taping her own sandwich against his.

After they finished their lunch they worked on moving boxes and other various things to where they need to go at start the unpacking process. Edd's desk stuff and both of their books in the far left corner next to Edd's L shaped desk and bookshelf, the rest of their clothing and the pieces of Edd's bed in the bedroom.

As Marie set the last box labeled "Edd's Desk" down on the floor next to his desk she sees "Marie's coffee cup" on the list Edd had written for the contents of the box. Curious she opens the box up and sees the paper coffee cup she had given Edd when she had gotten him to ditch school for the first time. She honestly didn't think Edd would have kept the cup with the drawings on its back when she had given it to him.

She picks up the cup from the box and smiles. "This must be what he meant about me not being the only one keep reminders." She says looking over the drawings she did on the cup.

As she looked at the cup covered in her drawings an idea comes to her and she takes a marker out of the box and quickly adds "Love you Muffin, don't work too hard" to the inside of the cup.

"Heh heh, that is going to confuse him." She says putting the cup and marker back into the box before closing it back up.

Just as she closed the box, Edd walked out of the bedroom. "Where do you want to put your painting shelf?"

Marie turns around to face Edd hoping he didn't see her. "Oh, uh I dunno. Where can we put it?" She asks looking around at the empty walls.

"Well I have already asked the landlord if it would be ok to hang it and your paintings and he said that so long as we don't damage the drywall with an excessive amount of holes we can hang them anywhere." Edd says also looking at the walls.

"Humm…" She says as her gaze falls on the wall next to the window. "How about here?" She asks putting her hand on the wall. "Your desk is going to be in this corner and we can put your bookshelf next to it and with my painting things next to that this whole corner will be like a work place corner." She says picturing how the corner of the apartment could look in her mind.

Edd also images what the corner of the apartment would look like. "That would work quite well."

Happy that he likes her idea Marie grins at Edd. "Awesome, but did you bring any tools to put it together and hang it?" She asks taking her hand off the wall.

"I did bring all of my tinkering tools, I'll put the shelf together if you want to keep moving stuff." Edd says walking over to the stack of his boxes already next to his desk.

Marie grabs Edd as he passes her and gives him a kiss. "Thank you Muffin." She says giving him a hug after the kiss.

Hugging her back he says; "You are most welcome Marie, I did promise your sister that I would do anything and everything to make you happy."

As Edd worked on putting the shelf together and then hanging it Marie moved the last of the boxes and Edd's dresser into the bedroom. Across from the door into the bedroom is a window and a walk in closet to the right of it.

Pushing Edd's four drawer dresser against the same wall the door is in Marie wipes the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. "Whew." She says turning to lean against it. "This thing was heavy."

She looks around the room at the boxes of her and Edd's things, the pieces of Edd's bed frame and their clothes. Were Marie had just thrown all of her clothing into trash bags for the move, Edd had packed up his in a duffle bag and a pair of black and white plastic laundry baskets. When she had changed into her pajamas the night before and then in the morning after her shower she had just thrown her things out of the bags onto the floor looking for article of clothing, while Edd had carefully taken things out of his bags and baskets and had them neatly organized on the floor.

Looking at Edd's cloths Marie see all the black in his wardrobe. 'I wonder if that's my doing?' she thinks curious if it was her and her bad girl ways that have influenced Edd to wear more black clothing or if he's always had a little bit of bad in himself and she just awoke it. 'Eater way, he looks good in black.'

Back in the main room of the apartment Edd had just finished hanging the shelf on the wall.

Taking a step back he looks at the shelf on the wall carefully looking at it to make sure it was level. "Hum." He says squinting at the shelf.

"It looks amazing Double Dee." Marie says warping her arms around Edd from behind him and standing on her tones to be tall enough to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Thank you Marie." He says as she kisses him on the cheek.

Marie lets go of Edd and he turns around to face her. "I got most of the stuff put away in the bedroom. I didn't hang any of your clothes in the closet cause I don't know how you wanted them, but everything else is basically done."

"Thank you for doing that Marie, I'll take care of my things later."

"We've gotten a lot of stuff done today." She says feeling a little hungry.

Looking over at the mattress on the floor and the box spring a few feet away still leaning against the wall Edd says; "That we have, shall we move the box spring and mattress into the bedroom next?"

"Sure. Then I'll make us something to eat, all this working has burned away my lunch."

"And there we go, bed all made." Edd says setting his green pillow down on the left side of the bed next to Marie's black one.

Marie wanted to jump onto the bed any lay across the green bedding, but she knew Edd likes having a well-kept bed so she held back that urge for the time being. "Now that that's done." She says as her and Edd walked out of the bedroom. "I'll get to work on wiping up some dinner."

"While you work on that I can hang some of your works and maybe put some books away." He says looking at the painting of Marie and him she had given him for their first Christmas and the drawing of him she'd made when they were trapped in the school and a few others sitting on his desk.

"Where you going to hang them?" Marie asks pulling a blue box of elbow noodles out of the well-organized cupboard.

"Well I think the drawing of me and the painting of us are a bit too personal to have out here, so I guess I'll hang them in the bedroom and the other two…" He says looking around at the empty walls.

"We could hang the Spider web one on the other side of the window and the robots dancing one could go on the wall in between the bedroom and bathroom doors." He says picking out places that they could hang Marie's painting.

Turning on the water to fill the pot in the sink Marie says; "Cool, just be careful with that hammer." Smiling at him as he pulls his hammer out of a box.

"Trust me." Edd says spinning the hammer around his finger. "I have been hammering nails for a long time."

"That could be taken very wrong." Marie says holding back a laugh at what Edd said as he picked up the two pictures he was going to hang in the bedroom.

After hanging the two in the bedroom Edd hangs Maries other paintings on the walls of the main room of the apartment. The two paints were some of Maries best works, both getting her A's in art class, which Marie said she didn't care about but Edd had a feeling she liked getting recognition for her hard work. The one he hung on the wall next to the window was of a large spider web made with a lot of different colors with an equally large black spider with a skull on it and the one on the wall between the doors was of two retro looking robots dancing the waltz.

"How's that look?" Edd asks stepping back from the painting of robots.

"Looks great." Marie says looking at her painting carefully hung on the wall. "So dinner will be done soon and unless you want to stand or sit on the floor you might want to get working on those stools." She adds pointing with a large plastic spoon at the two boxes that the stools they bought are still in.

"Not even a please?" He asks cracking a smile at her.

Returning the smile and pointing at him with the spoon. "In a Kanker's kitchen there is no please or even thank you." She says playing around with him.

"I've never heard this rule before." He says opening the box to one of the stools.

Her grin grows. "It may or may not be a rule I just made up on the spot to tease you."

"It is a good thing that you are beautiful and that I love you." Edd says pulling the metal legs for the stool out of the box.

"And what if I wasn't this sexy, would you still be in love with me?" Marie asks leaning on the island counter chewing on a noodle testing to see if it was cooked.

Edd looks up at her with the warm and caring smile she has enjoyed since the first time she ever saw it. "I would still love you regardless of how you looked."

Feeling her cheeks warm she says; "Jesus, Lee was right, we are still in the honeymoon phase."

"What do you mean?" Edd ask tightening a bolt with an allen wrench on the stool.

"Oh when you called yesterday I was with my sisters going through our cloths and she said we were still in the honeymoon phase of our relationship even after over two years of being together." She says as she dumped the water and noodles out of the pot into a straining bowl sitting in the sink.

Edd sets the first stool up on its legs and pushing down on the seat to see if it's assembled properly "Honeymoon phase? You mean the silly little flirting and teasing we do all the time?" He asks pushing the stool over by the island counter.

"Yeah I guess that's what she means." Marie says before ripping open a packet of yellow powder and pouring it onto the noodles she had already dumped back in the pot.

Opening the second stool box Edd says; "I like our silly little flirting and teasing we do, I just assumed that's what all couples did."

Marie opens the fridge and pulls out a container of milk. "I like it too. I can't say if everyone does it, nor do I care if they do. It's our thing and we will do whatever we want to do."

"That is another thing I love about you. Your lack of caring of what others think." Edd says as he assembled the second stool faster than the first one having the assembly process still in his head.

"You want to know another thing I love about you?" She asks adding another reason to her "Why I love Double Dee" list she keeps in her head.

"Always."

"Look at this place Double Dee, we got a whole lot of work done today and it is all thanks to your planning and thinking ahead. If had been up to just me I wouldn't have even gotten our stuff sorted into the proper places."

"I didn't do that much, I didn't even get to putting any books away." Edd says thinking he didn't do as much work as Marie was giving him credit for.

"Don't sell yourself short Double Dee, you are an amazing planner and coordinator. Its cause you thought ahead and we got all the stuff we did at the store that I was able to make a Kanker specialty, cut up hot dogs in Mac n' Cheese." She says setting the pot down onto the island counter telling him what she had made for dinner.

"The first meal I ever had at your house as your boyfriend." Edd says remembering when he had helped Marie cook dinner for her and her sisters.

Marie pulls out a pair of bowls from the cupboards. "Almost, didn't have to use grated cheese this time." She says as Edd finished assembling the second stool.

"There we go, proper sitting equipment." He says testing the stool just like he hand done with the first. "And I'm sure it will taste just as great as the first time we made the dish."

Scooping out a spoon full of the Mac n' Cheese and hotdog pieces Marie says; "Well we are about to find out."

As she server out their dinner Edd moved the stools around to the far corner of the island counter so they could sit next to each other while they ate. "Would you like something to drink?" He asks walking over to the fridge as Marie set the bowls down in front of the stools.

"A can of soda pleases." She says digging out a pair of forks from one of the draws.

Edd grabs two cans of soda out of the fridge and sets them down by the bowls before he sits down on one stool just before Marie sat down next to him.

"Thank you for cooking dinner Marie." He says before taking his first bite of the dish.

Stopping halfway to her mouth with her fork full of food Marie says; "No problem Double Dee, you can do the cooking tomorrow night." Smiling at him.

Returning the smile he says; "fair enough." Before taking a second bite.

"That was delicious Marie." Edd says setting his fork down next to his empty bowl.

Giving him a kiss on the cheek Marie picks up his and her bowl. "Glad you liked it. If you want to go get changed I'll clean up." She says carrying the bowls over to the sink.

"Do you want me to help you?" He asks offering to help her clean up the kitchen.

"Na, I got this." She says wanting him to go into the bedroom so she could execute a plan she's been formulating for a while now.

Edd shrugs his shoulder. "Ok, well if you need anything just say so." He says walking over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"I will." She says turning on the water to fill the sink with hot water.

She listens for the sound of the door closing and when it does she started to quickly wash out the bowls, plates from the morning, mugs from their afternoon coffee and the pot and spoon she used to make the dinner. 'Ok, it's going to take him about ten minutes to change into his pajamas so we have like fifteen to get this done.' She thinks squirting a small amount of dish soap into the sink.

As Marie quickly works on cleaning the plates, bowls, mugs and the cookware Edd changed into his pajamas. After changing he hung up his dress shirts and pants on his side of the closet and then went and laid on his side of the bed to read a book.

Stopping at the end of a page he looks up from the book and out the window to his left at the night sky to the painting of Marie and him on the wall across from the bed to the drawing of him on the wall above his dresser. "I really like this place." He says smiling as he goes back to reading.

Halfway through that page he hears the door open and looks up to see Marie walk into the room.

"Hey." She says with a hint of seduction in her voice as she closed the door.

"Hey." Edd says back a little concerned about the tone of her voice and what was about to come.

Marie swings her hips as she walked over to the bed then climbs onto it and crawls over to Edd on her hands and knees. Looking him directly in the eyes she slowly pulls the book out of his hands before she climbed onto his lap. "We have some unfinished business." She says tossing the book onto the nightstand on Edd's side of the bed.

"Unfinished business?" He asks as Marie runs her fingertips across his chest.

Marie slides her hands into Edd's and holds them down to his side. "From earlier." She says before she starts to kiss him.

Edd tried to pull his hands out of Marie's, but she stops him and grins as they continue to kiss. "Ah ah." She says breaking the kiss. "Your mine mister."

"What do you plan on doing to me then?" Edd asks flirting with her.

Marie lets go of Edd's hands and grabs the bottom of her shirt and pulls it off. "This give you a hint?" She asks tossing her shirt off to the side.

Taking advantage of her letting go of his hands Edd reaches over and turns the lamp off on the night stand. "It does." He says grabbing her sides. "But I think I am going to have to change your plans a little." He adds before he rolled her onto her back and he gets on top of her.

Marie giggle as Edd starts to kiss her, she was unsure where Edd gets his boldness when they would "fool around", but she loved that he would take charge in the bedroom.

"I love you Marie." Edd says breaking the kiss and leaning up slightly.

"I love you too Double Dee, but enough talking." She says pulling him back to herself by his shirt.

**Sorry this is taking longer than my other stories did to come out, real life has been taxing. But I have plans for this one, a lot of plans.**


	3. Chapter 3

Edd awoke before Marie again and carefully slides out from under her arm and out of the bed. Looking at Marie with the covers pulled up to her face he decides to let her sleep in once again. So he makes his half of the bed and leaves the bedroom as quietly as he could. It may only be the second night of sleeping together in the apartment, but Edd already loves holding Marie in his arms as he drifted off to sleep despite how different it felt sharing the bed.

Marie however was more comfortable with sharing the bed then Edd, having spent almost eighteen years sharing one with May and Lee, and she noticed right away when Edd got out of the bed.

"Coffee… Need coffee." She says stirring in the bed.

She tosses the bedding off herself then rolls over to Edd's side of the bed and sits up. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes she sees the empty square package sitting on the nightstand and feels the afterglow of their intimate night returning. Edd and her are nowhere near the rabbits she knows Lee and Eddy are, but every time they have an intimate moment together they make sure to be safe about it. She grabs the empty wrapper in her fist knowing that she should toss it in the trash as she gets up off the bed. She grabs the edge of the green comforter and pulls it back over the bed in a half-awake attempt to make her half of the bed before walking to the door and opening it.

When he left the bedroom Edd had gone into the bathroom and retrieved his bathrobe to help fight the chill of the mid-August morning and was in the kitchen pouring himself a bowl of cereal while coffee brewed in the maker behind him as Marie walked out of the bedroom.

"Good morning Ma-" He says looking up but stopped when he sees her. "Rie!" he covers his eyes with his hand and his face grows red. Where Edd had returned to his yellow pajamas before they laid down to sleep, Marie however had decided to sleep in just a tank top and underwear.

"What's wrong Double Dee?" She asks unsure why Edd is reacting the way he is.

Still keeping his eyes covered he says; "You're not dressed."

She looks down at herself, she understood him looking away the day before when she was just in a towel, but she figured a tank top and underwear is enough in the apartment. Looking back up at Edd a light turns on in her head and her wicked smile appears. "What's wrong with dressing like this?" She asks walking over to him. "It's just us in here all by ourselves, or am I making you think naughty thoughts?" She asks in a seductive tone wrapping her hands around his neck.

He took his hand off his eyes when he felt Marie's arms around his neck and his face turns redder from having Marie this close to him.

She pulls herself up to give him a kiss, but just as their lips were about to touch a knock came from the door.

"Eeep!" She says pulling Edd's bathrobe off him and putting it on herself lighting fast not wanting whoever was at the door to see her half naked.

"Who could that be?" Edd asks as Marie ties his robe around her.

With her mood killed she says; "Dono, but if it's some creepy guy I'm going to crack him in the teeth."

Edd believes she was annoyed at whoever was at the door, but he doubted that she would strike the person. Walking over to the door Edd hears Marie take the coffee pot out of the machine and pores some coffee into one of the two empty mugs. "You want some creamer?" She asks as he grabs the door knob.

"Yes please." He says before opening the door.

Outside the door was an older gentleman with short gray hair. "Oh, good morning Mr. Gergen." Edd says greeting the man at the door.

"Morning Eddward, I have the second set of keys and your utility bills. Now the August bills are under the buildings name but you need get them put into your name before September." Mr. Gergen says holding out a manila envelope to Edd.

Edd takes the envelope from Mr. Gergen. "Thank you sir, and I will get that done today." He says as Marie opens the fridge door.

"And you must be Marie." Mr. Gergen says looking past Edd to Marie.

"Yeah." She says looking around the fridge door at who she guessed was the landlord of the building. Looking at Mr. Gergen Marie couldn't help but notice that he looked a lot like their old high school Principal, Principle Walrts, which shocked her at first.

Mr. Gergen looks away from Marie and back to Edd. "Well you kids have a good day now." He says holding out his right hand to Edd.

Edd takes his hand and shakes it. "Thank you Mr. Gergen, you have a good day as well."

After letting go of Mr. Gergen's hand and he starts to walk away Edd closes the door. "Well that was well timed." He says looking at the envelope.

"What ya mean?" Marie asks holding a mug out to him.

Edd takes the mug from her. "Well when I came with Mother and Father a few weeks ago I only got one set of keys and I knew I would need to get a set for you, so I called Mr. Gergen and asked if I could get a set for you. I did have to tell him they were for you, but as far as he knows you are just visiting often."

Edd takes a drink from the mug as he walked back into the kitchen where Marie was pouring herself a bowl of cereal. "Have to keep our love a secret eh?" She asks grinning at him.

"Only till after Saturday, they I will add you to the lease." Edd says as he opened the fridge to retrieve the container of milk.

Marie closes up the box of cereal and sets it to the side. "Oh your dad will love that when he finds out."

"Well by then you will be eighteen and he won't be able to really stop us." Edd says pouring milk into his bowl.

Marie takes the milk container from him. "Have I ever told you how hot it is when you rebel?"

Smiling he says; "Yes you have. My mother found your proof of how much you enjoyed my defiance of a curfew one night, remember?" As he points to a spot on his neck.

"How mad was she again at you for that hickey?" She asks as she starts eating her cereal.

"She was more mad that I was twenty minutes late getting home than that you left a mark on my neck."

"I wonder what she'd say about this one." Marie says pulling the neck of the robe back to show him the mark he left on her collarbone during the night.

Edd's cheeks turn a little red. "I'm sure she would definitely freak out if she saw that."

Maire lets out a little laugh. "Ok, I won't send her a pic of it then."

Once their breakfast was done Edd washed the dishes as Marie showered and then when she finished he went to take one himself. Looking in the mirror he sees that a fine layer of stubble has grown on his face.

"I need to shave." He says turning his head from side to side. He opens the drawer on the left side of the sink and retrieves his can of shaving cream and razor. He takes his pajama shirt off to keep it from getting wet while he shaved and folds it up and sets it on the counter. He turns on the water and gets his facial hair wet before applying shaving cream to his face.

*knock knock* "Hey Double Dee." Marie says through the door.

"Yes?" He says stopping his shaving and turning to the door.

Marie opens the door and sticks her head in. "Do you have-" She started to say but lost her train of thought at the sight of Edd without a shirt on. She shakes her head to get her mind to not focus completely on her boyfriend shirtless. "Do you organize your books by author or title?" She asks enjoying the view of Edd with no shirt on.

"By title, are you putting my books away?" He asks not noticing how Marie was looking at him.

"Yeah, figured I should do something productive while you showered."

"Thank you Marie, I will be done soon and then we can go do something fun for the day."

"Cool, well enjoy your shower." Marie says pulling her head back out the door. 'God damn he is hot.' She thinks leaning against the door for a second before she went back to putting Edd's books away.

"Look Double Dee, a coffee shop!" Marie says pointing at a shop as they walk down the sidewalk. They had chosen to walk around the part of Lemon Brook around their apartment building to see what shops there are in walking distance.

"Did you want to stop in there and get something?" Edd asks as they stop in front of the shop named "Shot in the Dark".

"Maybe later, let's see what other cool places we have around here first." Marie says pulling Edd back down the street by their conjoined hands.

As they continue their walk Marie makes mental notes of all the shops she sees. It was mostly apartment buildings but there are a few restaurants here and there and arts and crafts store, that she intends to look into more at a later date.

They turn a corner and see a large building with a decent sized parking lot. "Books and More? I wonder what this place is." Edd says looking up at the brown building.

"Let's check it out then." Marie says curious as to what the building is.

Walking through the double sliding doors they see that the building is a used bookstore that also sells CD's, movies, musical instruments and a various selection of electronics.

"Damn, this place looks cool." Marie says looking around the store.

Edd also looks around and his excitement grows seeing the large selection of books and the electronics section. "This place does seem interesting, would you like to take a look around?" He asks looking at Marie.

"Yes please." She says before she dragged him over towards the CD displays.

Edd stood with Marie as she looked at the CD's the store had, by after a few minutes he excused himself to go look around at the electronics. It was mostly used video games and game systems on display, but they had a decent amount of other things, like tablets, computer parts and MP3 players.

"Hum." Edd says looking at the display of MP3 players.

"Find anything cool?" Marie asks walking up behind Edd.

He turns around to face Marie. "Nothing really, how about you?" He asks noticing the small stack of CD's she has in her hands.

Holding up the stack of CD's she says; "I found some new CD's and I saw some books you might like over there."

"Oh?" He says his curiosity growing. "What kind of books?"

"Best way I could describe them is mad science fiction." Marie says as they start walking away from the electronics.

"Mad science fiction?" He asks

"Yeah, the cover art looks really cool. One has this fifty's style scientist working on a giant robot."

"That, sounds like it would be a good read."

"I know right? I figured if you didn't want them I would grab them myself."

"Wow, these look old." Edd says picking up the book Marie had described to him.

"Yeah, but you did once says that old books have character." She says looking at the rest of the books.

"I did, I think I will get this one and this one with an evil looking laboratory." He says picking up another book from the display.

"I knew you'd want them." Marie says grinning at him. "Once you finish can I read them?" She asks as they walk away from the book display. Before she started dating Edd Marie never really cared for recreational reading, or even reading school assignments. But Edd showed her book after book of every different style he could find till she found one she was interested in, and that lead to her getting more and more enjoyment from reading.

"Of course you can." Edd says happy that his girlfriend had an enjoyment for reading.

Walking back through the electronics section Mare sees a TV sitting on top of a tall glass doored display case of old video games. "Hey Double Dee, check out that TV." She says pointing at the TV on top of the case.

"What about it?" He asks looking up at the flat wide screen TV that she was pointing at.

Look away from the TV Marie says; "We should get it."

"A television would be nice to have, and it doesn't look too old." Edd says agreeing with her. "Excuse me, may I have a look at that television?" He says to a middle aged man behind the case that held the MP3 players he was looking at.

"Sure." The man says before walking around the case to get the TV for Edd.

He takes the TV off of the case and carries it over to the MP3 player case. "It's about five years old, but it's all in working order and still has the remote." He adds setting it down on the case.

Edd turns the TV around and looks over the connections in the back. "Everything seems to be in order." He says turning the TV back around. "How much is it?"

"It's fifty even." The worker says.

"That's a good price Double Dee." Marie says hoping he would agree and they can get the TV.

"It is." Edd says agreeing with Marie before turning to the man. "We'll take it please."

As they are waiting in line to pay for the CD's books and TV an idea comes to Marie. "Hey Double Dee, you like this place right?" She asks as they move forward in the line.

Edd readjusts his grip on the TV. "I do, I could spend all day in here and not get bored."

"Then why not see if they are hiring?"

Edd looks around at the store, he does enjoy the shop and decides to take a chance. "I think I will." He says taking her advice.

"Cool but ask about the job before we pay for our stuff, they might have an employee discount." She says as the person in front of them walks to an open cashier.

Edd laughs as a female clerk at the pay counters calls out; "I can help the next person down here."

"Hello." Edd says setting the TV down on the counter.

"Did you find everything ok?" The clerk asks as Marie sets her CD's and Edd's books down on the counter.

"We did thank you." Edd says as the clerk starts punching in the prices of the items into the register.

"Ok, that will be seventy five sixty nine." The clerk says telling them the total of all the perches.

Before Edd could even pull his wallet out of his pocket Marie pulls a few bills out of her own pocket and holds them out to the clerk. "Can we do twenty five in cash please." She says to Edd surprise.

"You had that planned didn't you?" Edd asks pulling his wallet out of his pocket.

"I originally was just going to pay for my CD's and your books, but now I can help a little with the TV too."

Edd wanted to buy the CD's for her, paying for everything was one of the things he figured he would need to do to keep his promise to May and Lee about doing everything he can to keep Marie happy. But what he sees now is that her helping is what will make Marie happy. "Ok then." He says smiling at Marie. "And can you put the rest on my card please?" He asks the clerk holding out his bank card.

"Sure." The clerk says taking his card and sliding it through a card reader attached to the register.

"I was wondering." Edd says as the receipt prints out of the register. "Do you happen to have any openings available?"

"I think Dave is looking for another grunt." The clerk says folding up the receipt.

Marie raises her eyebrow at the clerk. "A grunt?" She asks unsure if the clerk just insulted Edd or not.

"It's what they call the stalk boys, you know doing all the grunt work; Putting new books out, putting away things people left around the shop and cleaning up around the chairs all over the place." The clerk says holding out their receipt to Edd. "Let me get him for you." She says before turning her head around and yells; "Dave, someone wants to know if you need another warm body."

The man Edd assumed was Dave was a middle aged man with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, glasses and a goatee with two short braids coming off the bottom. "What was that Jesse?" he says looking at the now named clerk.

Jesse rolls her eyes. "This guy is asking if we are hiring at the moment." She says before saying under her breath; "You old burnt out hippy." That Marie herd and snorted a laugh.

"Oh, right on. Yeah we do need another part timer." Dave says walking over to the counter. "Names Dave, and you are?" he asks holding his left hand out to Edd.

Edd thought it was strange that Dave was holding out his left hand for a handshake, but he takes it with his left hand anyway and shakes it. "Hello, I'm Eddward Vincent." He says introducing himself to Dave.

"Nice to meet you man, so what's your work experience?" Dave asks Edd jumping right into the job interview.

Edd didn't expect to be questioned by Dave at that moment, but he doesn't let that stop him. "Well I worked at the Peach Creek Mall Radio Shack for over two years before moving here to Lemon Brook." He says telling Dave about his only job.

"Ah a Creek boy. You guys didn't do so good in football against us last year did ya?" Dave asks as Jesse walks away from the counter.

"Well I was never that much interested in the school's sports teams. I was more academically inclined." Edd says as Marie picks up one of Edd's books and starts reading it.

Dave cracks a smile. "Preferred books over brawns huh? So you probably know your way around books then."

"I do, the Library at our old school was where I would spent a lot of my free time when I was not in class."

"And I'm guessing that your time at Radio Shack made you familiar with basic electronics?"

"I'm actually quite knowledgeable when it comes to electronics, I've been taking things apart and fixing them since I was ten." Edd says getting a little excited while talking about his favorite hobby.

"Hum, and what about your availability? You look like your college bound."

"I am set to attend the local Community College this semester, but I have yet to obtain a class schedule."

"Well most everyone else is a college kid too, so we are always willing to work around class schedules. But you'd be only getting maybe twenty hours a week."

"I am ok with that."

"I like you Eddward, come by Thursday morning and we'll see what we can do about adding you to the team."

Edd's eyes grow wide. "Really? Thank you very much Sir." He says happy that Dave wants him to come back for what he expects is a proper job interview.

"You're welcome kid, but call me Dave, Sir is for old people." Dave says holding his left hand out to Edd again.

Edd takes his hand and shakes it again before picking up the TV. "I will see you Thursday Dave." He say as Marie, who is still reading the book, and him start to walk away from the counter.

"Congrats on the job Muffin." Marie says folding a corner of the page she was on to mark her spot in the book.

"Thank you for suggesting I ask Cupcake." Edd says smiling at her as they walked towards the exit.

"Ok. Yes I understand. Thank you, you also have a good day." Edd says ending the third call he's made sense Marie and him returned to the apartment.

"And there we go, the electric and water is in my name and we have an appointment for a cable installer to come by Wednesday morning." He says leaning back in his desk chair and looking over to Marie who's been sitting on the corner of his L shaped desk closes to the kitchen reading the same book as earlier.

Marie closes the book then leans down and gives him a quick kiss. "Yay for us." She says excited that within a few days they will have cable TV. The Kanker family never had cable TV and have only ever used bunnies ears for their TV.

Edd stands up from his desk chair and hold his hand out to Marie to help her off the desk. "So what would you like for a late lunch slash early dinner?"

Marie takes his hand and hops down off the desk. "Besides you?" She asks pulling Edd close to her by his hand,

Edd laughs. "Yes besides me."

"Hum…" Marie says thinking about what she'd want to eat but couldn't decide. "Damn, talk about a first world problem. We have all this food we bought yesterday and I have no idea what to eat."

"Well personally I could go for some lasagna." Edd says telling her what he is in the mood for.

"Oh no, no more frozen food for you. You are going to make us a box of Hamburger Helper mister." Marie says giving him a stern look. She had made a promise to keep Edd from living off of frozen food and she knew she would have to be forceful with him over it.

Edd was surprised by the force of her voice. "Yes ma'am." He says giving her a short salute.

"Ok so now I need to add the packet of seasoning." Edd says reading the back of the box of Hamburger Helper. Edd has been following the directions on the back of the box as he made them their meal, browning the pound of ground beef, adding the noodles and the water and now he was reaching the last few instructions.

While Edd cook Marie had taken up sitting in his desk chair with her feet up on the desk to continue to read Edd's book. The books were something she was planning to take a look at once Edd was done with them, but him talking to his soon to be new boss and the cooking he is doing now has given her plenty of time to get lost in the book.

"Seeing you get lost in a book is really adorable you know."

"Hum?" Marie says looking up from the book at Edd.

"Watching you read, the look on your face as you enjoy word after word in that book, I can't help but think of how cute it makes you look." Edd says looking at her as he poured the packet of powder into the frying pan.

Marie folds the corner of the page she was on and then sets the book down. "It's not my fault you're such a book worm that you influenced me to like reading." She says getting up from the chair.

"You knew of my book worminess well before we started dating." Edd says turning back to the stove to continue making their dinner.

Marie walks up behind him and wraps her arms around his chest. "Yeah, it was hot then and is still hot today." She says pulling him close.

As they sat at the island counter eating Marie looks around at the apartment. They had set the TV on top of the now empty milk crate she had used for her books and with Edd's desk mostly set up like he had it in his old bedroom, his computer still needed to be put together, the apartment looked a bit empty without the boxes.

"We need to get some more stuff for our place, it's too empty." She says turning back to Edd.

Edd takes a look around the apartment. "Yes we do, that is something we can look to take care of tomorrow."

"What should we get? Besides a couch."

"A couch would be out number one priority, but a proper stand for the TV and a proper light source for the rest of the main room other than the kitchen light are something's we should also look into."

It occurred to Marie that they have spent a lot of money in the past two days, and she guessed that Edd's savings were nearing empty like she knew hers was. "The TV does look a silly on top of the milk crate, but we don't have to get a bunch of stuff."

"A couch and a stand for the TV isn't a bunch of stuff Marie. Its stuff we need for our home."

"It's just that…" She says unsure how she should word what she is about to say. *Sigh* "We've just been spending a lot of money in just a few days and I don't want you to spend all of your hard earned savings thinking you're doing it to keep me happy. I would be happy with a cardboard box and a tarp to keep it dry so long as I am with you Edd. You need to save your money for when something comes up and we need a fall back."

Edd hadn't thought about the amount of money they have spent since moving to Lemon brook, but now that the topic was brought up he does see that they have been excessive in their spending. "I guess I just never fully looked at it any way other than doing what I wanted to do to make you happy Marie. I want this to work and I guess in my mind I came to the conclusion to just throw money at everything. That was and is wrong of me and I am truly sorry for that." He says putting his left hand on top of her right hand.

Marie turns her hand around so they can cup their hands together. "It's ok Double Dee, you've always had your heart in the right place. You just never think of the simpler solutions, it has to be the more complex way that would take seven stages to solve a problem when it can be done in two." She says squeezing his hand.

"That is true, I always look for the harder route for the answers, but I can assure you Marie, my beautiful Cupcake, that if we were to purchase a couch tomorrow that I will have plenty of money left to keep us covered if anything happened, plus I basically have a job lined up already so I'll have an income to start replenishing what we have been spending."

Marie couldn't help but blush and smile at him, he always knew what to say to make her happy and feel the feeling only he has ever made her feel. "Ok Double Dee, but I'm going to find myself a job too. Can't have you being a sugar daddy even if you are really sweet."

After they finished their dinner Marie helped Edd with the cleaning up and washing of the dishes.

"This is a little bit of a blast from the past isn't it." Marie says as Edd handed her a plate he had just washed so she could rinse and dry it.

"You mean because I have helped you wash dishes at the trailer several times in the past?" Edd asks holding a plate up so he could see if there was any food Pease's left on it.

"Heh yeah, that was always fun." She says setting the dried plate down onto the counter next to her.

Once the kitchen was cleaned up and the clean dishes and cookware was put away they went into the bedroom to relax on the bed. Edd was finally able to start reading the other book they had picked up at the bookstore, leaving the other one till after Marie had finished it, and Marie chose to not read but draw in her sketch book. The sifi book she'd been reading throughout the day had inspired her, and as she leaned up against Edd she drew a picture of a giant robot fighting an equally large spider.

"What you think?" She asks holding the drawing out for Edd to see.

"Amazing and something I've never seen before as always." He says looking over the drawing.

As Edd was looking over the drawing it dawned on Marie how quiet it was in the apartment. 'We need some music or something.' She thinks just as an idea came to her. "I have an idea." She says jumping out of the bed.

She starts digging through the last box of her things looking for what she knew was in it. "Ah ha!" She says pulling her old beaten up CD player and earbuds from the box.

She grabs one of the new CD's she'd bought at the store and jumped back onto the bed. She pops open the CD player and sets it down on the bed before she opened the CD case.

"Needed some music I take it?" Edd asks as Marie clicks the disk into place inside the CD player.

"Yeah, it's too eerie in here when it's quiet." She says closing the player and pushing the play/on button.

"It is a bit too quiet in here." He says as Marie put one of the earbuds into her left ear. To his surprise she sticks the other one into his right ear so he too could listen to the music.

Edd adjust the earbud in his ear and asks; "Who is this?" Curious as to which band he was now listening to.

Marie returns to her position of leaning against Edd. "It's Green Day's Dookie album." Marie has always been a more heavier and louder rock music fan but she knew Edd was not a fan of that type of music, though she has made him into a little bit of a rock music fan over the years by doing what they are doing now.

"Have we listened to some of their work before?" Edd asks enjoying the song playing in his ear.

Marie picks up her sketchbook and pencil. "Yeah their Nimrod album, that's the one that has the song "Nice Guys Finish Last" on it. Which I totally think is bull, you're a nice guy and you not only finished first you lapped everyone else."

Edd lifts up his arm up and around Marie and then puts it around her shoulders. "I can't argue with that." He says before giving the top of her head a quick kiss.

**Fun little Easter egg; in cannon Edd doesn't have a last name, so I went and used the last name of the voice actor that did his voice in the show.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Ready to go?" Edd asks pocketing his IPhone.

"Ready." Marie responds swinging her small purse over her shoulder. Marie doesn't normally use the old black purse she's had for years but today she was feeling a little fancy and decided to use it to carry her wallet, keys and phone.

As they walked down the stairs a thought came to Edd. "I should check the mailbox, see if we have anything." He says realizing that it has been a few days since their move and they may have mail.

"If we do have anything it's probably just junk mail."

Edd takes out his keys. "Maybe, but if we do we should still take it out."

Edd opens the small metal door marked with their room number on it to find a single letter and a card. "A letter from my school and a change of address card, the post office must give these to new residents." He says pulling the contents of the mailbox out.

"I should probably fill that out, seeing as I never thought of changing my address." Marie says as Edd closes the mailbox.

He holds the card out for her to take. "Here you go then."

Marie takes the card and puts it into her purse. "So what's the letter say?" She asks as Edd opened the letter.

Edd quickly scans the letter. "It says I am supposed to head down to my school to sign up for my classes tomorrow."

"Well we know what you're going to be doing tomorrow." Marie says as Edd hold open the door for her.

Edd unlocks the passenger door for her. "Will you be ok with being home alone when the cable installer comes?"

"Yeah, and if the guy try's anything I'll just pound him." Marie says holding her fist up as Edd walked around to his side of the car.

Edd knew Marie could hold her own against most people that would think to mess with her. "Just so long as you don't kill the person." He says starting up the car.

"So where should we look first? I think I saw a Good Will when I came to Lemon Brook with my parents the last time." Edd says as they pull up to a red light.

Sense they got into the car and for the entire ride Marie has been texting on her phone, something she's not normally know to do. "That would be a good place to start." She says looking up from her phone. "Also I just scored us some transport for if we do find a couch, seeing as there is no way we would be able to fit one in your car."

The light turns green and Edd accelerates the car. "Oh, who did you get to help us?"

Marie puts her phone away in her purse. "I got Lee to help us, we just have to give her some gas money and feed her."

"That is nice of her."

"She said I could call her if I needed anything, and the use of Mom's truck and her driver's license is something we need."

Inside of the Goodwill Marie was looking through the racks of clothing as Edd looked at the surprisingly large selection of furniture. There are several couches, arm chairs, desks and all kinds of small tables.

"This is a lot more than I thought there would be." Edd says looking around at the different couches.

"Its cause of all the college students, they get an apartment while they are in school and when they move back home they can't take all the stuff they bought so they give it to us." A voice says from behind Edd.

Edd turns around to see an older woman with a blue vest on with the words "Good Will" embroidered on it "Hello." He says to the older woman.

"Afternoon dearie, looking to get a couch?" the woman says smiling at Edd.

"Yes I am, my girlfriend and I just moved here and we have almost no furniture."

"Heh have a little love nest going eh?" The woman says grinning at Edd.

Edd didn't think the woman would make such a joke and it caught him off guard. "Um well, in a manner of speaking…" He says feeling his face grow warm.

"Ha." The woman laughs at Edd's obvious embarrassment. "Well those over there have fold out beds and these ones are wide enough for four people to sit on or for two to lie on."

Edd couldn't believe how the woman was talking. 'Is every adult in this town a little crazy?' he thinks as he looks at the couches she was pointing at. "Well it is just us two, but we do have a large group of friend and family I suspect will be making surprise visits. I guess one of the wider ones will work."

"Good choice, my husband and I have long couches. When you choose the one you want just let one of the checkers upfront know." The woman says patting Edd on the back before she walked away.

"That was… strange." He says shaking his head with his eyes closed.

"What was strange?" He hears Marie ask.

He opens his eyes and sees Marie walking over to him with a few articles of clothing in her hands.

"I just had a very strange conversation with one of the clerks that works here."

"What did they say?" Marie asks raising her eyebrow.

Edd felt a little embarrassed telling Marie about the conversation, but he knew that she would want to know what the clerk said and would pester him if he didn't. "She was making some very inappropriate jokes and comments."

Marie felt an eye twitch of anger at the clerk. "She wasn't hitting on was she? Cause I will pop her in the neck if she was."

Edd waves his hands. "Oh no, she was just making jokes about hers and our... um personal lives." He says not wanting Marie to hunt down the clerk.

"She made jokes about sex?" Marie asks her anger fading.

"Yeah… it was something I would not expect a little old lady to do."

"Oh." Marie says finally understanding. "She was just a dirty old lady."

"Anyways, what did you find?" He asks wanting to change the subject to something not as uncomfortable.

"Oh I found a few things, some shirts and this." She says holding up a black nighty. "I thought you might like to see me in this.

Edd feels his face grow hot from embarrassment. "Um…" he says not knowing how to respond to her.

Marie's wicked smile appears on her face. "I'll take your burning red face as a yes." She says adding the nighty back to the rest of the clothes.

Edd shakes his head again trying to get his composure back. "So I was thinking we should probably get one of the wider ones so when our friends come by, like I know they will, we'll have plenty of sitting room." He says hiding the fact he would like to see Marie in the revealing night dress.

"And plenty of cuddling room." Marie adds not knowing that the clerk made a joke about two people lying on the couch.

Edd figured it was best to just let that be and move past the perverted old lady. "Personally I like this tan one here." He says pointing at a tan colored cloth couch.

"It's kind of boring looking, what about the black leather one?" Marie says pointing at a black leather couch behind the tan one.

Edd looks at the couch and remembers the leather couch Eddy's parents have in their house. "Leather furniture can get very sticky when the tempter is high." He says remembering how unenjoyable it was to sit on Edd's couch in the summer.

Marie doesn't like the idea of sticking to the couch. "Eww, tan one it is then."

"Alright, if you want to get ahold of Lee I will find a teller to pay for it."

Marie opens her purse and takes out her phone to call her sister. "Ok I can pay for these too then." She says holding up the cloths in her hand.

"Maybe I should have called her before we even went into the Good Will." Marie says looking at the clock on her phone.

When Marie called her sister Lee told her she'd "get there when I get there" and now Marie and Edd are sitting on their new couch with a small coffee table they also found in the parking lot by Edd's car.

Edd takes out his pocket watch to check the time himself. "It's only been, a little over an hour." He says seeing that Marie and him have been sitting outside of his car for over an hour waiting for Lee.

Marie rolls to her side and falls over landing her head on Edd's lap. "Sorry Muffin." She says looking up at him.

Edd looks down at her a he slips his watch back into his pocket. "It's ok, it's a nice day out and I can't think of anyone else I would rather be sitting outside on our new couch with."

"Yeah." Marie says closing her eyes. "It's the perfect conditions for a cat nap."

Seconds after Marie closed her eyes she hears the sound of an old truck pull up near them. "Hey Marie! Wake up!" She hears Lee yell at her.

Marie snaps her eyes open and looks over at her sister in their mothers truck. "How could anyone think about sleeping with you yelling?" She asks sitting up.

"Afternoon Lee." Edd says standing up from the couch.

"Hey Sock Head." Edd hears a voice he was not expecting to hear.

"Eddy?" Edd says looking into the cab of the truck and seeing his friend in the passenger seat.

"Hey Double Dee!" Edd hears his other best friend from the back of the truck."

"Ed? What are you and Eddy doing here?" Edd asks seeing Ed's head pop up over the cab.

"You didn't expect me to do any heavy lifting did you? So I dragged Eddy along with me." Lee says pointing at Eddy with her thumb.

"And I brought Lumpy to do MY heavy lifting, who invited May along." Eddy says pointing behind himself at the back of the tuck.

May stands up in the back of the truck. "Hi Marie, hi Double Dee." She says smiling at Edd and Marie.

Edd holds out his hand to Marie. "This went from a simple trip to a full group gathering." He says helping her up off the couch.

"When has anything gone as planned when my sisters or your friends are involved?" She asks happy to see her sisters.

As Edd and Ed worked on loading the couch and coffee table into the back of the truck Eddy choose to sit on the hood of Edd's car to "direct them", really all he was doing was lying on the hood looking up at the sky.

"You're doing great boys." Eddy says holding a thumbs up at Ed and Edd as they struggled to push the couch into the back of the truck.

Lee smacks Eddy accost the side of his head. "Go and help them you dweeb." She says feeling a little annoyed at him.

Eddy quickly jumps off the car. "Alright alright, I'm going." He says moving fast before Lee could hit him again.

Lee turns back to her sisters whom she had been talking to prior to hitting Eddy. "He is such a jerk sometimes." She says shaking her head. "I have half a mind to dump his lazy ass if it wasn't for the fact that he has a big-"

Marie cut her off by putting had over Lee's mouth. "Ok that is something we don't need to know. And we all know you love the fact that he's lazy and bossy, he's just like you." She says taking her hand off of Lee's mouth.

"I am not! Well maybe a little." Lee says agreeing with Marie.

"Ok it's in." Eddy yells at the sisters as he closed the hatch to the truck.

"You and Ed want to ride with us May?" Marie asks her younger sister as she opened the passenger door of Edd's car.

"Sure." May says happy that she wouldn't have to share the back of the truck with the couch.

"So how's the comic book store going Ed?" Edd asks as they drove back to the apartment building.

Ed leans forward in his seat. "It's going awesome Double Dee, Mark has been showing me all kinds of cool stuff. Like how to fill out the weekly orders for new books based off of what we sold the week before and planning out the bills for the month."

"It seems like he is showing you a lot about running the store Ed." Edd says looking at his friend in the rearview mirror and seeing the big smile on his face.

Ed's smile grows "He is, I wish I had known that working was going to be this fun sooner, I would have gotten a job while we were still in school."

"I think you got lucky with this job Ed, the theatre isn't as fun as you'd think it would be. I spend so much of the day cleaning up popcorn that I can't eat it anymore." May says frowning at the word popcorn.

Marie turns around in her seat and says; "You get a discount on movies and you didn't have to work in a grocery store, so you have no idea what a bad work environment is."

"Yeah, but you did quit that job in traditional Kanker style." May says as they pull into the parking lot of the apartment.

"That I did." Marie says with a grin as she got out of the car.

Walking over to her mother's truck Marie sees Lee and Eddy locked in a deep and loud kiss. "Hey!" She yells kicking the driver's side door. "Get a room ya freaks."

Lee pulls away from Eddy. "Fine, Hey Double Dee! Give me your keys!" She yells at her sister's boyfriend.

"Oh no! You're not doing any of... that." Marie says gesturing at all of Eddy and Lee. "Where I sleep."

"Like you're not having fun with you man every night." Lee says as she gets out of the truck.

Marie wants every time Edd and her are intimate together to be special, so she doesn't expect or even make him be intimate with her every night. Only when the mood is right do they culminate their relationship and love for each other.

"We're not a couple of rabbits like you two are Lee." She says not wanting to tell her sister the truth about her and Edd's personal life.

"Like you'd know what we're like." Lee says as the Ed's worked on getting the couch out of the truck.

What Lee doesn't know is that Marie does have the misfortune of know how much she is like a rabbit. One night when she'd come home from work she overheard her sister and Eddy "Going at it" in their bedroom and promptly left the trailer to go over to Edd's to get away from what was happening in her bed.

"I don't, and never want to know what you two get up to." Marie says as Ed and Edd carry the couch and Eddy carry's the table towards the building.

"Marie, would you mind opening the door for us please?" Edd asks giving Marie a way out of the conversation she was having with Lee.

"Sure." Marie says walking away from Lee.

"You've got a nice place Marie." May says as she followed her sisters into the apartment.

Marie holds the door open for Edd and Ed to get the couch through it. "Thanks May, it's really quiet and different, but I love it here."

"I'll be right back, I left something in the truck." Eddy says setting the table down outside of the door and then running back to the stairs.

Marie raises her eyebrow. "Where is he going?" She asks walking out the door to get the table.

"Beats me." Lee says leaning against the island counter on one of the stools. "When I picked him and Ed up he had a bag with him and wouldn't tell me what was inside it."

Edd and Ed set the couch down in front of the TV. "He said he had something to make going over to Double Dee's more fun." Ed says standing up and dusting off his hands.

"More fun? What could he have meant by that?" Edd asks as he took the table for Marie.

"No idea but I have to agree with May, you two do have a nice pad going on." Lee says as she looks around the apartment.

"Thanks sis." Marie says dropping down onto the couch.

Less than a minute later Edd got his answer when Eddy entered the apartment.

"Alright Ladies, let's get this party going." Eddy says pulling a large bottle of a light brown liquid out of a brown paper bag.

Edd had been working on linking his computer up to the TV, that is now sitting on the coffee table, so the group could watch a movie while they waited for the pizza he'd ordered as part of the payment for Lee. He looks over at Eddy and he knew right away that it was a bottle of liquor of some kind and got up from behind the TV and quickly walked over to Eddy. "I'll take that." He says taking the bottle away from Eddy before he could open it.

"What the heck Man?" Eddy asks confused as to why Edd took the bottle from him.

Edd walks over to the fridge. "While I do not approve of you consuming alcohol under age Eddy I cannot baby sit you anymore. If you wish to live your life this way I will not stop you, however I will not allow you to do so in this apartment. So you may have this back when you leave." He says putting the bottle on top of the fridge and pushing it all the way to the back.

"Dude! Don't be a dick man." Eddy says jumping up trying to reach the bottle on top of the fridge, but his lacking height made it impossible for him to reach it.

"I'm sorry Eddy, my home my rules." Edd says walking back to the TV to finish his work.

Marie turns around on the couch where she was sitting next to her sisters. "Yeah I don't want you getting drunk and yakking on our new couch."

"Come on, when have I ever gotten stupid drunk?" Eddy asks giving up on trying to get his bottle back.

"I can remember a party Kevin threw where you threw up in his closet." Lee says also turning around on the couch.

"Fine, we can sit around and do nothing fun." Eddy says dropping down onto one of the stools by the island counter.

"We are doing something fun Eddy, Double Dee ordered pizza and we are going to watch a movie." Ed says not moving from his spot on the floor in front of May.

Lee turned back around. "Yeah, so don't be a big baby and come sit down with the rest of." She says rolling her eyes at how Eddy was acting.

Not wanting his friends to pick on him more Eddy slides off the stool and drags his feet as he walked around the couch and sat down on the floor in front of Lee.

"Alright, moment of truth." Edd says turning his computer tower on. As the tower hummed and lights came on the TV displayed the Windows loading screen and the sound of the computer starting played through the speakers Edd had set on either side of the TV.

"Good job Double Dee." Marie says smiling at Edd as he stood up.

"Thank you Marie." Edd says walking over to the bookshelf. "Now we don't have much of a movie selection, I have several documentaries' I think would be quite educational."

"Booo." Everyone says at the mention of documentaries.

"I should have seen that coming, ok well there is… War Games and Real Geniuses and, I think this is one of yours Ed." Edd says pulling out a DVD of Jurassic Park.

"Oh! Let's watch that Double Dee!" Ed says excited to see his missing DVD.

"I was a little surprised to see that one with your stuff Double Dee. Its science, but too fictional for it to be something you'd own." Marie says as Edd opened the DVD case.

Edd opens the disk drive on his computer. "It is a bit silly of a concept, but it's still a good movie."

The boys sat on the floor at the feet of their respective girlfriends as they watched the movie and ate their pizza.

"The T-Rexes roar gives me goose bumps every time." Ed says taking a bite from his pizza.

"I have to agree with you Ed, despite it being what the creature most likely didn't sound like." Edd says shifting around so he's not leaning all of his weight against Marie's legs.

"Don't over think it Sock Head." Eddy says reaching past Ed on his left to push Edd.

Edd sits back up straight. "Sorry Eddy, a scientific mind always over thinks anything science related." He says picking up his own slice of pizza.

"Your such a nerd." Eddy says before taking a drink from his can of soda.

Lee kicks Eddy's back, but she made sure to be gentle enough to not spill his soda. "Can't be mad at him for being smarter than you." She says a little mad at Eddy for picking on Edd.

"He's not THAT much smarter than me." Eddy says trying to defend himself.

"She's got a point Eddy, you did barely graduate high school." May says from between her sisters.

Eddy felt his face grow red from anger and embarrassment. "I'm not that stupid." He says crossing his arms.

"Even I did better than you Eddy, and I hated school." Lee says holding back a laugh at her boyfriend.

"Jesus, why didn't anyone tell me it was rip on Eddy day." Eddy says pulling his head down and glaring.

"Sorry Eddy, we'll stop making fun of you if it's hurting your feelings." Edd says barely holding back his own laugh.

Ed pats Eddy on the top of his head. "Aww, there there. Eddy." He says grinning at the fact that Eddy is being picked on like he's done to them in the past. "It is ok Eddy, we still like you even if you are the dumb one now."

Ed calling Eddy the dumb one caused everyone, but Eddy, to laugh.

Eddy feels his face grow red from embarrassment. "You guys are all jerks. " He says wanting the night to end.

"Hey." Lee says reaching down and lifting Eddy's head up and back so she could look him in the face. "We only pick on you cause were your friends, and you think I would care if you were the dumbest person on earth?"

Eddy smiles up at his girlfriend, they may have only been dating for a few months but Eddy is really happy with Lee as his girlfriend. "I know you wouldn't care." He says before Lee leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.

As Lee reassured Eddy Marie couldn't help by watch her sister and Eddy interact. 'Man.' She thinks turning back to the movie. 'If I had never chosen that one closet with a bad door, none of this would probably have happened.'

Marie reaches down and scratches the side of Edd's head and lends down to whisper just loud enough for him to hear; "Love you Muffin."

Edd reaches up with his hand and puts it on top of hers. "Love you too Cupcake." He whispers back giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Ok kids, it's about time we get going back home." Lee says standing up and stretching as the credits start to roll.

"Thanks for the pizza Double Dee." Ed says standing up himself and then holding out a hand to May, just like Edd dose for Marie.

Edd sees Ed offering to help May up off the couch and felt proud of his friend for being a gentleman to his girlfriend. "You're welcome Ed." He says standing up and holding a hand out to Marie himself.

Where Marie is use to and expects Edd to help her off the couch, May didn't expect Ed to do it and her cheeks turned red. "Thanks Ed." She says taking his hand.

Ed pulls her up to her feet. "You are welcome my little Mayday." Ed says causing May to blush more at the use of his nickname for her.

"Oh god, not you too with the stupid pet names." Lee says walking away from the couch.

"Yeah all four of you are a bunch of saps." Eddy says hiding the fact that he has a secret pet name for Lee, he just never uses it in public because he didn't want to show a soft side to anyone.

Marie decided to use some of the dirt she has on her sister. "Don't hate us for it, Leewee." She says using the pet name she had heard Eddy use when they didn't know she was listing.

Both Eddy and Lee freeze. "What the heck are you talking about?" Lee asks looking at her sister.

Marie grins. "Nothing sis." She says walking into the kitchen to turn the light on.

Lee glares at her sister but choose to let it go for the time being. "Anyways, let's get going."

Edd followed Marie into the kitchen and takes Eddy's bottle of liquor down from the top of the fridge. "Here is your liquor back Eddy." He says holding the glass bottle out to his friend.

Eddy takes the bottle and puts it back into the bag he brought it in. "Thanks, now I have to figure out how to hide this from my folks."

"I wish you would reconsider your current choices in your life Eddy. You need to start acting like an adult now that we are no longer in grade school." Edd says a little disappointed in his friend.

Eddy rolls his eyes. "Whatever man, it's not like I have something I have to be responsible for. I'm young and without a care in the world." Eddy says opening the door to the apartment.

"For now Eddy, but you never know what life can throw at you." Edd say still trying to get Eddy to reconsider the choices he is making.

Eddy doesn't want to hear any more lecturing from Edd. "You worry too much man, you ladies ready to go?" he asks wanting to leave as soon as they can.

"Hey Eddy." Lee says reaching into her pocket. "You drive home, I want to sleep on the ride." She says tossing the keys to her mother's truck to Eddy.

Eddy catches the keys with his free hand. "Well we're off. Later Double Dee." He says walking out the door.

Ed walks to the door to follow Eddy and Lee out of it. "Bye bye Double Dee." He says giving Edd a surprised hug.

May stops at the door as well. "Thanks for having us over sis, take care Double Dee." She says smiling at Edd and Marie.

Edd smiles at his friends all outside of the door. "Good night everyone, drive safe."

"Later guys." Marie says walking up to Edd.

Edd closes the door and the four friends start walking to the stairs.

"Their doing well for themselves." May says commenting on how Edd and Marie are doing living on their own.

Ed takes May's hand. "Yeah, it's really cool that they have their own place."

"I give it a month, maybe two and they will either be at each other's throats or Marie will be pregnant." Lee says making predictions on what might happen to her sister and her boyfriend.

Eddy looks at Lee shocked. "Damn Lee, I think Double Dee is smarter than that."

"Eh, we'll see." She says shrugging her shoulders.

A normal person might have been driven mad over all of Edd's OCD behaviors, but Not Marie. She loved all the little things that have been happening in the apartment, separate laundry baskets for white and colored cloths, the kitchen and bathroom super organized, the cupboards organized in an alphabetical order and her pictures hung symmetrical on the walls. Edd's neat freakiness is one of the many things she loved about Edd.

Edd needed to head over to the community college to sign up for his classes early in the morning. So after they eat breakfast and taking a quick shower, and Marie giving him a long kiss, he left for his school leaving Marie alone in Lemon Brook for the first time since they moved.

Marie was lying on the couch listening to her CD player and reading the book she had been reading a few days ago that her and Edd got from the place of his soon to be new job.

*Knock knock*

"What the?" She says pulling one of her earbuds out of her ear and sitting up.

She turns off her CD player and leaves it and the book on the couch and walks over to the door. She opens the door and sees a bald middle aged man with a dark brown handlebar mustache, a utility belt full of tools and a cardboard box. "Can I help ya?" She asks unsure who the man is.

"I'm here to install your cable." The man says telling Marie why he was at the door.

"Oh." Marie says remembering Edd had made an appointment to get cable installed in the apartment. "Well come in then." She says standing to the side to let the man in.

"Thanks, names Bob by the way." The man says introducing himself to Marie.

While Bob worked behind the TV Marie watched him like a hawk. Never having a father growing up in stowed a lack of trust in any adult males in her, and Edd's strict father didn't help that problem. Leaning against the island counter sipping a can of soda Marie watches Bob install a coax cable into the outlet in the wall then into a splitter and then a second cable into a black box that looked like a VCR to her that he'd already hooked up to the TV. He then turns on the TV and the box with a second remote he took from the box and messes with the setting of the box.

"Do you have a modem already?" Bob asks looking over at Marie as he attached a third longer cable to the splitter.

Marie wasn't sure what he was talking about. "I don't think we do." She says figuring it would be best to tell him no so he wouldn't go looking through Edd's things looking for one.

Bob sighs and says under his breath thinking Marie wouldn't hear him; "Of course you don't, damn collage kids never come prepared."

Marie did hear him and it only made her not like the cable installer more. 'Jack ass.' She thinks glaring at Bob as he digs through the box.

Continuing to glaring at Bob Marie watches him plug the third cable into a small rectangular box and then attached a power supply cable from a wall outlet near Edd's desk to the small box.

"Ok." Bob says standing up. "Your all hooked up and we'll charge your account for the modem."

"K." Marie says not moving from her spot as he walked to the door.

Bob opens the door. "Have a good one." He says looking over at Marie.

"Yeah, you too." She says moving to close the door when he leaves.

When she closes the door she turns the lock on the door not wanting any chance of Bob coming back. "What a jerk." She says picking up her can of soda from the counter.

She walks over to the TV to see the work he's done. "He didn't even hook up Double Dee's computer, what a lazy bum." She says seeing that he had left an ethernet cable on the floor next to the modem.

Marie had watched and listen to Edd a lot over the years when he would talk shop or work on his computer, so after checking and rechecking the back of Edd's computer she was able to get it hooked up to the internet.

"Alright me." She says turning on Edd's computer as she sat down in his desk chair.

The computer loads up and a login screen appears. "Password huh?" She says looking at the screen. She's never used Edd's computer without him being with her so she's never needed to know his password. "Hum..." She says thinking of what his password could be. Looking at the screen she sees a little question mark button and clicks it and a little message saying "Best day of my life" pops up.

"Best day of his life huh? Wonder what that could be?" She says reading the password hint.

Marie leans back in the chair and looks up at the ceiling. "The best day of his life…" She says mulling the hint to what Edd's password could be.

A date came to her, it was a date that was the best day of her life. "It couldn't be…" She says sitting back upright in the chair. "Could it?"

She then punches in the date of a day from years ago that Edd chose to not go to school and instead invite Marie to go to the Peach Creek Mall with him after they were released from their high school after spending a whole weekend trapped inside of it.

"Ha!" She says as the eight numbers worked to unlock Edd's computer.

Marie proceeds plays around on Edd's computer for a while, he has shown her all kinds of things you can do on a computer but she is nowhere near his skill level. She plays a few games he has on it for a while, solitaire and a simple pinball game, but after that she used the ITunes program to play some music while she made herself some lunch.

As loud rock music played Marie sat at the island counter eating a sandwich. "I should check out that arts and crafts store." She says coming up with something she could do with the rest of her day.

After finishing her lunch and cleaning up the kitchen she heads into the bedroom to put on socks and her shoes.

In the bedroom she puts on her small silver heart necklace before pulling a pair of clean socks out of the top drawer of Edd's dresser that he gave to her to use. As she sits on the bed and pulls on the socks she sees Edd's orange hoodie hanging in the closet. She looks out the window and sees a few clouds in the sky. It wasn't enough to suggest that rain was coming, but it was enough for her to take Edd's hoodie with her. She loves the dark gray zip up hoodie she took from him years ago despite it being worn out, but it's hers now and she wanted Edd's orange one for the day for no other reason than it being Edd's.

"This place is awesome." Marie says as she walks down one of the few aisle of the arts and crafts store fittingly named Little Arts. It wasn't a very large store, but it was packed full of all kinds of arts and craft supplies.

"Oh my god!" She says as she enters the last aisle and sees all of the professional drawing supplies. Peach Creek never had a good selection of supplies and seeing all of the different pencils and various tablets she felt like a kid in a candy store.

"Oh man, I could spend a lot of money in this place." She says as she picks up a sixty piece set.

Marie wanted to buy one of the really expensive set of supplies, but she knew it would be irresponsible of her. So using all of her willpower she chose a small set of charcoal pencils and a new drawing tablet and headed to the front of the store.

As she approached the counter she sees a hand written sign saying; "part time help wanted."

Looking at the sign she thinks; 'I should ask about the job, this would be an awesome place to work.'

"Hello." The older woman with ghost white hair tied into a ponytail going to the middle of her back behind the counter says greeting Marie as she reached the counter.

Marie sets the pencils and tablet down on the counter. "Hi." She says back.

"Just these for you dear?" The woman asks as she starts ringing up Marie's things.

"Well, I was wondering about that sign." Marie says pointing at the help wanted sign.

"Oh that's not for sale, I'm looking to hire someone." The woman says waving a hand a Marie.

Marie held back a laugh. "No I don't want it, I'm curious about the job."

"Oh! Well that makes sense then." The woman says smiling at Marie. "My last part timer finished her schooling and moved away and I am looking for someone to help out around the store."

"Ouch, well I'm interested." Marie says feeling a little sorry for the woman losing her help,

"Eh, it happens. So are you a student at the college?" The woman asks.

"Na, just moved to Lemon Brook a few days ago."

"All by yourself?" the woman asks looking at Marie's necklace.

"Oh no, me and my boyfriend moved together. He's going to the school and I came along."

"Heh kids in love, it's a funny sight." The woman says smiling again at Marie. "Well as for the job the hours will be minimal and a bit sporadic, the days I need help changes every week."

Marie was fine with the fact that the hours would be all over the place. "That's fine, I just think it would be cool working at a place that feeds my hobby."

"Artist are we?" the woman asks.

"Yeah, painting and drawing are my passions." Marie says not adding that Edd is also something she is very passionate about.

"Oh where are my manners. My name is Ms. Marpole, but you can call me Sidney." Sidney says holding out her right hand to Marie.

Marie takes her hand and shakes it. "I'm Marie."

"So tell me Marie, what kind of work experience do you have?"

"Only job I've had was as a bagger at a grocery store back in Peach Creek."

"I see, well how old are you Marie?"

"I'm technically seventeen, but my eighteenth birthday is on Saturday."

Sidney looks at Marie as if she were mulling their conversation over inside of her head. "I like you Marie, the job's yours."

Marie's eyes grow wide. "Really? Awesome." She says getting excited.

"Come by tomorrow morning and we'll get the boring paperwork stuff sorted."

"Thank you so much Sidney." Marie says happy that she got offered the job.

"You're welcome Marie, but there is just one small thing we need to take care of first."

"What's that?" Marie asks unsure what is left.

"It's going to be twenty five dollars for the pencils and tablet." Sidney says pointing at the stuff Marie hand wanted to buy before she had asked about the job.

"Oh yeah, I should probably do that." Marie says laughing.

Walking down the street with her supplies in a bag Marie wanted to jump for joy, she likes Sidney and can't wait to start working at the shop.

"This is so awesome." She says stopping at a crosswalk. "This job is going to be so much better than the grocery store."

As the light changes and she starts walking again Marie remembers the last night she worked at the grocery store.

When Edd told her the day they would be moving Marie put in her two weeks notice of quitting two extra weeks before she needed to and was on the final week of employment at the store when she walked off the job.

The number one thing she hated about the job was that she couldn't make people pay for the way they would treat her. Most of the older people were always rude to her and she would get hit on almost every day by customers and other employees. The number two thing she hated was this other high schooler that worked there named Scott. Scott would hit on her almost every day and would want her to go over to his house for a party.

On her last night of working he came up next to her while she was bagging a big order for a large family.

"Hey there Marie, what's going on?" Scott asked using a line he's used on her several times.

Marie just rolled her eyes at the question. "What does it look like? I'm working you idiot."

Scott didn't even bother to start helping her. "That's cool, so what you doing tonight after work?" He asked leaning one hand against the register.

Marie felt her anger and hate for the egotistical jerk grow. "I told you before that I will hurt you if you don't stop hitting on me, so go away."

Scott didn't listen to her and continued to talk to her. "You always say that but you never act on it. I bet you're all bark and no bite."

Marie knew he wasn't worth her time and just focused on the fact that she only had a few more days left at the store. "Leave me alone." She says doing everything in her power to not swing at him with a bag full of cans.

"Come on Marie, why don't you ditch that pussy nerd and get with a real man." Scott says as he put his hand on her shoulder.

Normally Marie would just keep telling him to leave her alone and try to ignore him, but when he called Edd a pussy nerd she grabbed his hand bent his arm back and then punched him full force in the stomach causing him to fall to the ground.

Her retaliation against Scott caused the store to grow quiet. "I told you to leave me alone you peace of shit. And don't you ever talk about Edd that way, he is more man then you could ever achieve." She says before kicking him in the stomach.

"Marie! What the hell?" She hears her manager yell from behind her.

Marie turns around to face her manager. "What? I told him to leave me alone. It's not my fault he doesn't know to not piss off a Kanker." She says crossing her arms as Scott went into a ball on the floor.

"Your last name gives you no right to attack the pore boy." The manager says glaring down at Marie.

Marie points at Scott on the ground. "But his pretty boy face gives him the right to hit on me every damn day and to insult my boyfriend?" She asks raising her voice so other people would hear what Scott has done.

"That is not what we are discussing at the moment Marie. I want you to apologies to Scott and then come with me, we are going to have a word with the store manager and then we will be calling your mother." The manager says avoiding the topic Marie brought up.

Marie was officially done with the store and no longer cared about finishing the week. "How about this?" She says flipping off the manager with both hands.

"MARIE! UPSTAIRS NOW!" The manager yells his face growing red.

"Nope." She was getting a kick out of how angry the manager was getting. "Screw you guys, I'm a going home." She says walking around the manager.

"GET BACK HERE MARIE OR I WILL CALL THE POLICE."

Marie didn't stop walking to the exit, but she did respond back. "And what, tell them how you try to get into the pants of every underage girl that's worked here? I'm sure they would love to hear about that."

The store stayed quiet as Marie walked the last few feet to and then out the door.

When she'd gotten home that night she took both of her work polo shirts outside of the trailer and burned them in a fire pit that one of the other residents of the Park and Flush had dug so she would never have to look at them again. The next day when she told Edd about what happened he laughed and took her out for ice-cream. He knew how much she hated that job and even if it was on very bad terms that she left, it was still something to celebrate.

Marie never heard from the store or the police about what she did and was thankful that she'd taken Edd's advice and set up her paycheck to be deposited into the bank account her mother set up for her so she would never have to go back to the store.

And now as she entered the apartment building she couldn't wait to tell Edd about her new job.

Walking down one of the hallways of the college building Edd pulls out his ear buds from his old messenger bag he's used all throughout high school and plugged them into his IPhone. He wanted to listen to some music as he walked to his car to drown out the sounds of the hallway full of people. He navigates to the music playing app on the phone and pushes the play button. Most of the music on his phone was classical and calming songs, but when a rock song started playing he almost jumped out of his skin. Looking at his phone he sees that the player is set to shuffle and it had started playing a song name Through the Fire and Flames, one of the songs Marie has downloaded onto his phone during one of the many times she's played with it. He was about to push the skip button to pass over the rock song but as he listens to the song he couldn't help but start laughing at how much he's changed because of her. 'Lord knows who I would have become without her.' A smile grows on his face. 'I doubt I would even be here if it wasn't for her.' he thinks as he puts his phone back into his pocket getting some enjoyment from the song playing in his ears.

"Hey good looking, what's cooking?" Marie says from the kitchen as Edd enters the apartment.

Edd looks over at her and sees that she's in the process of cooking. "Shouldn't that be my line?" He asks taking his messenger bag off his shoulder.

"Maybe, but I have some awesome news. I got a job today Double Dee." She says her excitement from earlier returning.

Hearing this made Edd happy and excited for Marie. "Really? That's wonderful Marie."

She turns around to face the stove to continue working on the meal she was preparing. "Thank you Muffin. It's at that arts and crafts store we walked by the other day, the lady who runs the place told me to come in tomorrow morning for paper work."

Edd sits down on one of the stools at the island counter. "Looks like we both will be starting our new jobs tomorrow."

"Yeah, but enough about me and my awesome new job. How was your class signing up?" She asks looking over her shoulder at him.

"It was long. I should have known there would have been more to going to college then just a few letters sent into them, all the paperwork was a challenge."

Marie opens the cabinet they kept the dishes in and pulls out two plates. "Sounds like it was a bit stressful."

"It was, I am glad I'm finally home with you." Edd says smiling as Marie started to put food onto the plates.

Marie adds the finishing touches to the meal. "I had a feeling that it would almost kill you so I made you your favorite food." She says picking up the plates.

"Scrambled eggs and fresh hash browns?" Edd asks naming his personal favorite dish to have.

"With black pepper, cheese and ketchup." She adds setting the plates down on the island counter.

Edd looks down at the plate, Marie had clearly put in a lot of care into making the dish before him. The Eggs are perfectly scrambled with melted cheese mixed in and the hash browns had the right amount of black pepper and ketchup on them. "I love you Cupcake." He says looking over at Marie as she sat down next to him.

Marie could tell by the look on his face that she made the dish exactly how he liked it. "I love you too Muffin, now tell me about what classes you're taking. I can't brag about my genius of a boyfriend if I don't know what you're going to be learning."

"Not much to brag about." He says picking up the fork off of the plate. "They didn't have a lot of advanced classes open for a first year student. I have remedial Math, English and Basic Science for an hour each once a week. They did have an Introduction to Electrical Engineering class that I was able to get into so with that and the others I will have class three days a week."

"Enough time to also work and spoil me." She says picking up her own fork.

Edd looks over to her again and says; "I will always make find time to spoil you Marie."

"You better." She says before leaning over and kissing him.

**AN: This has been my favorite chapter in this whole series to date. Writing Marie quitting was pure enjoyment, and I think that's how any of the Kanker sisters would quit a job they didn't like. I'm also finally getting more time to sit down and write, so hopefully I can get back to how fast I have gotten chapters out in the past.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Have a good first day of work Marie." Edd says pulling his car over to the curb to let Marie out in front of Little Arts.

Marie leans over and kisses Edd. "You too Double Dee." She says after breaking the kiss.

Marie unbuckles her seat belt and opens her door. "Let me know when Sidney lets you go and I'll see if I can give you a ride home." He says as she gets out of the car.

"I'll text ya, but don't skip out early for me. I can walk home if need be." She says looking back into the car.

"I won't, love you Cupcake." Edd says as Marie closes the door.

Marie leans in through the open window. "Love you too Muffin." She says blowing a kiss to him.

Edd was looking forward to his first day at Books and More, and he's dawned one of his orange dress shirts wanting to look professional.

Walking into the building Edd spots Dave sitting behind the checkout counter staring off into space. "Good morning Dave." Edd says as he approached the counter.

Dave snaps out of his daydream. "Hey man, how's it going?" He says getting out of the chair he was sitting on.

Edd holds his right hand out to Dave. "It is going good, how are you today?"

Dave looks at Edd's hand a bit confused, but he shrugs his shoulders and takes Edd's hand and shakes it. "Grooving, you ready to get to work? I have some stuff you could work on for me."

"Isn't there some paperwork I will need to fill out before I can start working?" Edd asks expecting that there would be a several forums he would need to fill out.

Dave shrugs his shoulders again. "Eh, just give me your full name and social and I'll get my office aide to take care of that."

Edd was dumb founded. "Um, ok then." He says starting to get concerned that Dave might not be a good manager.

"Yeah so just head into the back and the first door on the right is my office, Kelly should be in there." Dave says pointing off to the far wall where there is a set of double doors.

"Ok…" Edd says looking where Dave was pointing.

Edd walks through the double doors and enters the first door on the right. Inside the office there are two desks, one is a complete mess of all kinds of papers and the other was organized and clean.

"Can I help you?" A woman with short black hair and glasses asks looking at Edd from behind the clean desk.

"Yes, Dave sent me back here to give his office aide my information." Edd says to the woman he guessed was Kelly

"I've told that idiot I'm not his aide, I'm his damn partner." The woman says lifting her glasses and pinching the brim of her nose.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Edd says regretting using the term aide.

"It's not your fault. You must be Eddward, he told me he wanted to hired a new person." Kelly says looking at the computer monitor on her desk.

"Yes I am, and I assume that you are Kelly."

"I am. Now unfortunately Dave only told me about you this morning so I don't have any new hire forums ready yet, but if you leave me your information I can get working on that while you learn the ropes."

Edd was happy to see that there was someone who had a sense of how to run a business at the shop. "Alright then." He says pulling his wallet out of his pocket to retrieve his driver's license and social security card.

Kelly takes the cards from him. "Excellent, I'll get the paperwork going and you can head out and find Perry and he'll show you what to do." She says as she started typing on her keyboard.

"Thank you Kelly."

"Oh and Eddward." Kelly says looking away from her computer. "You don't have to wear a collared shirt while you're on the clock, any shirt is fine so long as it's in good condition and doesn't have anything offensive on it. We don't have much of a dress code, and everyone just has a lanyard with a name bag on it."

This was something Edd never hear before. "Really? Ok then."

"We like to keep a friendly and casual atmosphere in the shop, now Perry should be running the electronics section so you should be able to find him there."

Back out in the main part of the building Edd heads over to the electronics section and see the same middle aged man that helped him with the TV a few days ago. "Hello, you must be Perry."

"I am, hey you're the kid that bought the TV a few days ago." Perry says recognizing Edd.

"That I am, my name is Eddward." Edd said before holding his right hand out to Perry.

Perry shakes Edd's hand and asks; "So what can I do for you Eddward?"

"Well today is my first day of working here and Kelly told me to find you so you could show me what I will be doing for work."

"Ah, well welcome to the team."

"Thank you, so what kind of work will I be doing?" Edd asks looking around the shop.

"Well as a the new guy, you're pretty much doing grunt work. Taking new books out onto the floor, cleaning and whatever Dave would ask of you."

"Dave seems to be an… interesting character." Edd says at the mention of Dave's name.

"That he is, but Kelly keeps him in check and they both make this a fun place to work. But come on, let's get you doing something."

Perry shows Edd around the shop and the back room while explaining the ins and outs of Books and More. In the back room there are shelves of books, movies and CD's that were in the process of being added to the computer system.

"As the new guy your main job in the mornings is to take the cart full of new stuff for the floor that Jeff has added out and stock them." Perry says as they walk past a librarians cart that was empty.

"Sounds simple." Edd says looking at all the books on the shelves.

"In here is the cleaning stuff, the vacuum, brooms and surface cleaners." Perry says pushing open a door to a small closet.

Edd was starting to think this would be an easy job. "Cleaning is easy." He says thinking that having an easy job along with collage is probably for the best.

Perry closes the closet. "Until someone's kid makes a mess, gum seems to be a favorite of them."

"Damn kids! I hate them!" Edd hears a failure voice yell as someone entered the backroom.

"What happened Jesse?" Perry asks looking in the direction of the double doors.

"Some dumb kid dumped a big Icee onto the floor in the kids section. I swear I will never have one." Jesse, the girl that rang Edd and Marie up when they bought the TV, says storming over to Perry and Edd.

"Well Eddward, it looks like it's time to see how good you are at cleaning." Perry says opening the closet again.

It was a bit of a challenge for Edd cleaning up the spilled frozen juice drink as it was fastly melting into the carpet. But once its all cleaned up he went back in the back room by himself to put away the cleaning supply's he'd used away.

"Ah perfect timing Eddward, I have a few questions for you and some papers that need signing." Kelly says walking over to him.

"What do you need Kelly?" Edd asks closing the cleaning closet door.

She looks down at a clipboard in her hand. "Well I need your address here in Lemon Brook and your class schedule so we can work a schedule around it and the other college student's classes."

"Oh yes the address on my license is my parents' home in Peach Creek, I should look into getting that changed."

"I figured it was something like that, it would be crazy to drive an hour here just for work."

"That would be highly illogical."

As Edd filled out the paperwork Kelly prepared he thought about how it has been a very untraditional first day at a new job and wondered how Marie was doing at her new job.

Marie's day started out like any other first day on a job. As she walked through the front door of Little Arts she spots Sidney behind the counter where she was the day before.

"Good morning Marie." Sidney says when she sees Marie.

Marie smiles at the older woman, something she's not know to do often to people that are not Edd. "Morning boss." She says using the title of boss in its proper way for the first time ever.

Waving her hand like she did the previous day Sidney says; "No need to be professional Marie, just call me Sidney."

It surprised Marie that she used the title Boss on Sidney. "Sorry, first time I've ever called someone boss that I wasn't insulting."

Sidney grins. "Sounds like you were a bad kid back in school."

Marie grins as well, she could tell that Sidney is good at reading people. "That I was, my sisters and I were known as The Evil Kanker Sisters back in high school."

"Heh and let me guess, your boyfriend was a straight arrow. Never did anything bad." Sidney says guessing how Edd was when they were still in school.

Maries grin grows. "Until he fell for me."

Sidney starts laughing. "Oh you are a hoot Marie. But serious time now, I got some paperwork for us to go over and fill out." She says picking up a small stack of papers.

Sidney explains to Marie what each forum was and would have her sign the ones that needed signing. They were standard new hired forums, liability, taxes and the various policy's she'd need to follow. When Marie filled out the paperwork for her previous job she barely paid attention to the manager as he explained it all to her, but as Sidney went over the forums Marie listened to her with full attention.

"And that's the boring stuff done." Sidney says setting the last forum onto the pile of finished paperwork. "Now we can get down to showing you around the shop."

"Cool." Marie says spinning the pen shes been using around her fingers.

Sidney picks up the stack of papers and puts them into a manila folder and sets it under the counter. "We'll skip the register stuff for now and I'll show you around the shop." She says walking around the counter.

Marie follows Sidney into the shop. "As you can see were just a small little store, but we've been open for almost thirty years now so we get a good amount of business especially when a new semester starts at the college."

"Do you run this place alone?" Marie asks as she looks around the shop taking in more details then she did see the first time she was in it.

Sidney stops in front of a display of small packets of various beads and started straighten them. "I have for the past ten years now since my husband passed."

Marie felt bad for bringing up the topic. "Sorry to hear that." She says looking down at the floor.

"Thank you dreary, it is hard to lose your soul mate." Sidney says as she finished hanging the last pack of beads back where it belongs.

"I guess you loved him a lot then." Marie says as Sidney turned around from the display.

"I did." Sidney lets out a laugh as she looks back on her past with her deceased husband. "He used to annoy me so much when we were younger, but as we grew I got to know the real him."

Marie grins as she sees similarities between how her and Edd were and Sidney and her husband. "That sounds failure."

"He was the more artistic one of the two of us and it was his dream to open Little Arts."

"Do you have any kids?"

"Max had a genetic heart condition that he didn't want to risk passing on so we never did."

Marie felt guilt over bring up the topic of kids. "Oh, sorry."

"It's ok Marie, you could never have known." Sidney says putting her hand on Marie's shoulder. "But enough about this old woman and her past. Tell me about you and this boyfriend of yours."

"Not sure where to start." Marie says as she picks up her silver heart necklace and starts to play with it. Playing with her necklace was something Marie would unconsciously do whenever she would talk about Edd.

Sidney sees Marie playing with the necklace. "I'm guessing you very serious about him."

Marie's cheeks turn a little red. "That's putting it lightly, I love him more than anything."

"Oh? How long have you two been love birds?"

"It'll be three years in the spring, but I've liked Edd since we were thirteen." Marie says telling Sidney how long her relationship with Edd had been.

"Wow." Sidney says amazed at Marie's dedication to Edd. "That's some dedication."

Marie was a little surprised how open she is being with Sidney. "You have no idea."

"This is the address." Ms. Kanker says as she pulled into the parking lot of Edd and Marie's apartment building. "Let's see…" she says picking up the peace of paper Lee wrote the address to her middle daughters new home on. "And they are in number 205, so second floor." Says tuning off her tuck and unbuckling a box she has in the seat next to her. She opens her door and carefully picks up the box and exits the truck. With her girls working, and Marie now moved out, she hasn't had to work as much to support her girls giving her more free time. Which allowed her to make the tip to Lemon Brook to visit her daughter and her boyfriend.

Upstairs Marie and Edd both just got home from work and were in the kitchen enjoying each other's company after not seeing each other all day.

"Love you Muffin." Marie says breaking the kiss she and Edd have been sharing against the fridge.

"I love you too Cupcake." Edd says feeling a little light headed.

When he was told he could go home for the day by Dave he also received a text from Marie saying she was done and asking if she should walk home or wait for him. He responded back saying he just got off himself and will be there shortly to get her. She gave him a quick kiss when she got into the car but when they entered the apartment she pushed him up against the fridge and started to aggressively kiss him.

Marie was about to resume her assault on Edd when there was a knock on their door. "Who the heck could that be?" She asks looking at the door.

"I'm not sure, but it's not polite to leave a guest waiting at the door." Edd says taking his hands off of Marie's hips.

"Says who?" She asks preferring to leave whoever is at the door alone and continuing her kissing of Edd.

But when Edd opens the door she was glad that he didn't listen to her. "Mom? What are you doing here?" Marie asks surprised to see her mother at the door.

"I came to see you two, and I brought you something very important." Ms. Kanker says holding up the box in her hands.

Standing to the side to let her in Edd says; "Come in Ms. Kanker."

Ms. Kanker walks into the apartment. "Thanks." She says looking around the apartment.

Edd closes the door. "May I offer you something to drink?" He asks remembering his manners.

Ms. Kanker sets the box down with care onto the island counter. "No thanks."

"What's in the box Mom?" Marie asks curious as to what her mother brought for her.

Ms. Kanker opens the box. "I brought you your grandfathers ship in a bottle." She says taking the ship in a bottle out of the box.

Seeing the ship in a bottle shocked Marie, her and her sisters were never allowed to touch it when they were growing up. "You can't give us Grandpa's ship in a bottle Mom. That's like a family heirloom."

"Your grandfather gave this to me when I first left home he told me, "The S.S. Kanker will always leaves port with the first sailor so they can have something to keep family close when they are out to sea.", and now it's your turn to man your grandfathers ship." Ms. Kanker says holding the ship in a bottle out to Marie.

Marie's Grandfather on her mother's side was a former sailor in the Navy and the ship in the bottle that her mother has owned, and the girls have protected at the cost of anyone's safety, for as long and Marie could remember was something he made when he first retired from the Navy.

"But Mom, this is all you have left from when we lived in Washington." Marie says taking the ship in a bottle from her mother.

"No buts Marie, if you have to, think of it as an early birthday gift."

Marie still didn't feel right taking the ship in a bottle. When the sisters and their mother moved away from Washington to start a new life the ship in a bottle was one of the few important things they took with them, and now as she held the ship in a bottle in her hands she remembered how scary it was moving several states pulling the trailer behind the truck.

Edd sees that Marie was torn on taking the gift. "Thank you Ms. Kanker, we will take good care of it." He says putting his hand on Marie's shoulder.

Marie looks over at Edd and sees him smiling at her. She didn't have any real fears over moving with Edd, when he was involved she was always sure about what was happening in her life. "Ok Mom." She says deciding that it would be ok having the ship in a bottle. "I'll keep it safe and make sure nothing happens to it." She says holding the ship in a bottle tight but gentle enough to not break the glass.

Ms. Kanker was worried that she would have to fight with her daughter more on her accepting the gift. "I know you will." She says as she reached back into the box. "Here's the stand for it, find some place to keep it."

"I know just where to put it." Marie says taking the stand from her mother. "Be right back." She adds walking towards the bedroom door.

Marie enters the bedroom as Ms. Kanker sits down on one of the stools at the island counter. "You've made quite a nice home here Edd." She says as she looks around the apartment.

"Thank you Ms. Kanker, I have tried really hard to make this a place Marie would be happy in."

"Knowing my daughter and how she feels about you, she would probably be happy with a cardboard box and a tarp."

"She said the same thing just the other day." Edd says letting out a little laugh.

"The ship in a bottle is now safe on our dresser." Marie says walking back out of the bedroom.

"Good, so tell me how things have been going for you two?" Ms. Kanker asks as Marie sits down on the other stool.

Edd leans up against the counter next to the sink. "It has been quite enjoyable so far."

Marie turns to her mother. "We both just had our first days at our new jobs." She says telling her mother what they did for the day.

"And I have my first day of school on Monday." Edd adds.

"And I dunno about you Double Dee, but I love my new job. Sidney is a cool old lady." Marie says looking over to Edd.

"The book store is, not what I expected." Edd says unsure how to described his new job.

"Let me guess, your boss Dave is a little bit out there?" Marie asks remembering the comment the checker made when they were at the shop.

"He is different to say the least." Edd says scratching the back of his neck.

"Sounds like you like this new job more than the grocery store." Ms. Kanker says noticing the excitement in Marie's voice when she talked about her new job.

"I do, it's this small art supply shop a few blocks away."

"You two are doing well for yourselves, it's like you've been living together for months instead of just a few days"

"Thanks Mom." Marie says with a smile.

"Yes thank you Ms. Kanker." Edd says happy that Marie's mother approves of the apartment.

"But don't be going and doing anything crazy, I don't want to be a grandmother for a while." Ms. Kanker says pointing at Edd with a serious look on her face.

Both Edd and Marie felt really embarrassed by what Ms. Kanker said. "Mom!" Marie says her face turning very red.

Children was something neither Marie nor Edd have ever even thought about. Being only in their late teens and having only been dating for less than three years, it was just too soon to think about having kids.

"I'm kidding kids, can't blame me for giving you a little grief." Ms. Kanker says getting enjoyment from the looks on Edd and Marie's face. She doesn't want any of her girls to have kids at a young age like she did, but she would be quite happy if Edd became an official member of her family someday. Thought she'd prefer it to be well before any grandchildren are made.

After they said goodbye to Marie's mother, and getting a hug each from her, Edd and Marie are laying on the couch cuddling while they watched TV. Edd is leaning up against the arm of the couch with his arms around Marie as she rested her head against his chest.

"Hey Muffin." Marie says as she snuggled into his chest.

Edd looks down at her. "Yes Cupcake?" He asks as the program they were watching came to an end.

"Tell me a story." She says closing her eyes.

"Hum… I think I have an idea for one, it's an original so I hope it's good." He says coming up with an idea for a story he suspected she would like.

"I'm sure I'll like it."

Edd leans down and kisses the top of her head. "Ok, well once upon a time in the land of Peach Creek there was a blue haired princess in the disguise of an evil queen. Who, with her two sisters, would torment the good people of the land of Peach Creek whenever they saw fit. In the land there lived three boys that bore the name Ed that were the main target of the three sisters, For years the boys would run and try to hide from the sisters, but the sisters would always find the boys.

One day the sisters decided to have their fun with the boys, and as The Princess in disguise chased after the second of the boys named Ed he ran into a cave and she follows him in just as rocks fell trapping the two inside of the cave.

They could not move the rocks and had no choice but to travel through the cave to the other side to escape. The Princess agreed to a truce and promised to not torment The Boy until they made it out of the cave. The Boy thought that even though the torment would only be temporary halted it was still a well-earned break from The Princess.

As the two made their way through the cave The Boy came to learn a great deal about The Princess. He learned that she was stricken with a fear of the dark, but gifted in the skills of a painter and to his surprise did care about The Boy's safety.

The two eventually came to a small lake inside of the cave. The Boy wished to find another way through the cave but The Princess, wanting to have a little fun with The Boy, pushed him into the lake and jumped in after him.

The lake must have had some magical properties because as they made their way through it The Boy started to see the princess as someone other than a tormentor, she was actually a beautiful young woman who was quite fun to be around.

When they reached the other side of the lake The Princess stole a kiss from The Boy. For you see The Princess always claimed to love The Boy like her sisters did about the other two boys named Ed, but the people of Peach Creek thought it was just part of their tormentation. But in all reality The Princess truly did love The Boy, and with the kiss The Boy finally started to see The Princess as the person she really was. It was not a disguise she wore to appear as an evil queen, but was part of who she is. The evil was just the only half The Boy choose to see, now that he saw The Princess for who she truly was he couldn't help but fall for her.

And now years later The Boy shares a small castle with The Princess and is forever grateful of the time he spent in the cave with the princess."

"Edd…" Marie says looking up at Edd at a loss for words.

"Was it not that good?" He asks unsure if she liked the story he thought up about their weekend together inside of their high school.

Marie rolls onto her stomach and pushes herself up by her hands. "No way Double Dee, it was the greatest story I have ever hear in my life."

Edd was happy she liked his story. "I'm glad you liked it, I made it up as I went."

Hearing the story of how they went from tormenter and tormented to girlfriend and boyfriend reminded Marie of how much that weekend years ago felt like a fairytale. "I love you more than anything Double Dee." She says moving up to him.

"And I love you more than anything as well Marie." He says just before she kisses him.

As Marie kisses Edd a question comes to her. "Do you ever think this was our destiny? Like we were they meant to end up together like this?" She asks breaking the kiss.

Edd never really thought about destinies. "I'm not sure, the thought of there being a grand design controlling our lives doesn't sound good in my opinion. What would be the point of free will if our lives are already planned out? But regardless if this is how we were meant to be I am very happy that we ended up this way." He says hugging her close to his chest.

Most of Edd's second day of work was spent putting books onto the shelves and he felt like a librarian for most of it. But he enjoys being around all the books and he's helped a few people with finding books and electronics, which he also enjoyed doing. When he was in high school he enjoyed helping his friends with their school work.

'Teaching people has always been enjoyable.' He thinks as he watches a mother and daughter walk out of the kids section that he just helped. 'Maybe I should look into becoming a tutor once I get settled into my class schedule.'

"I don't see why we are doing this." Jake says as him and his wife walk up the stairs of Edd and Marie's apartment building.

"Because Eddward needs to know that we still care and are happy for him. We didn't get to see him off when he moved and I miss our son." Pam says as they reached the top of the stairs.

It was later in the day after both Pam and Jake got off of work and when they got home Pam suggested they go see Edd in Lemon Brook.

"We don't even know if he's home." Jake says when they reach Edd's apartment door.

"Well only one way to find out." Pam responds back knocking on the door.

On the other side of the door Edd hears the knock at the door from the kitchen where he was making dinner for Marie and himself.

"I got it." He says to Marie who was sitting across the couch drawing in her sketch book.

"K." She says not looking up from her work. As an early birthday gift to herself Marie bought a set of fancy colored pencils and was in the process of illustrating the story Edd told her the night before. Marie loved the story and thought that making it into a book for Edd would be a perfect way to show him how much she loved his story, but she didn't tell him about her little project wanting it to be a surprise for him.

Marie hears the door open. "Good evn- Mother? Father? What brings you out here?" She hears Edd say and she feels the blood drain from her face. 'Crap.' She thinks as she slowly turns to look at the door.

Since the day Edd told his parents about his school she has actively been avoiding them especially his dad, but now they are at the apartment and she has no idea what to do.

"We came to visit you Eddward dear." Pam says walking into the apartment. She looks around the room and spots Marie looking at her and Jake pale faced with a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Marie? What are you doing here?" Pam asks surprised to see her son's girlfriend.

"I came to visit Double Dee for the weekend." Marie says coming up with a reason on the spot as to why she would be at the apartment.

"Oh, well hello then Marie." Pam says believing Marie.

"Hi…" Marie says back.

"Are you cooking Son?" Jake asks looking into the kitchen seeing a pot and a frying pan on the stove top.

"Yes I am Father." Edd says looking back at his cooking.

"What are you cooking?" Jake asks as Edd went back to what he was making.

"Well I am making grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and tater tots." Ed says telling his father what he was cooking.

Jake was a little impressed with the fact that his son is cooking, but the meal he was making seemed like a meal that wasn't the best choice health wise. "Hmm." He says looking away from Edd and over to Marie.

"Hello Sir." Marie says lowering down slightly behind the back of the couch.

Jake expected Marie to visit Edd as some point in his stay in Lemon Brook, but not the at same time as his wife and him were. "Marie." He says nodding at her.

'First it was my mom to visit and now Double Dee's parents, who's next? His barber?' Marie thinks feeling Jakes gaze pierce her.

"Isn't a cough and a TV a bit much this early in living here?" Jake asks looking back at his son.

"Me and my sisters gave him the couch as a gift." Marie says coming up with a lie about the couch.

"That was nice of you and your sisters." Pam says as she sat down on one of the stools.

With the lie about the couch Marie feels her confidence returning. "It was the least we could do, after all he has done for us." She says sitting back up.

Wanting to show she was still friendly with Marie Pam decided to keep making small talk with her. "So how's your job going Marie?"

"It's going good, I really like it." Marie says forgetting that they think she still works at the grocery store.

"I heard you quit the bagging job." Jake says remembering hearing about how she left the store from a coworker who was there the night she walked out.

"Oh I got a different job. It's nothing big but Double Dee got a really cool job, right Double Dee?" Marie says trying to redirect the conversation onto him.

Edd sees the look of panic in Marie's eyes. "Yes I did, I was just telling Marie about it in fact." He says adding to the lies of the night.

"Where are you working now Eddward?" Jake asks curious as to where his son is working now.

"There is a used book store not that far away that is willing to work with my school schedule."

"What classes are you taking this semester?" Jake asks.

"Oh well for now I am just taking remedial and an introduction to electrical engineering." Edd says trying to hide his fear and panic over his parents surprise visit.

"Hmm." Jake says having nothing to say about Edd's class choses.

"May I use your restroom Eddward dear?" Pam asks getting up from the stool..

"Go right ahead Mother." Edd says gesturing to the door of the restroom.

As Pam washes her hands after using the facility's she looks around the bathroom counter and noticed that there are a lot of things that would belong to a woman on the counter. "Hum…" She says looking with more detail at the items around her.

It was understandable for Marie to have brought things like her tooth brush, hair brush and some makeup with her, but to already have it out on the counter when she said she was just visiting for the weekend didn't seem right. Pam then looks over at the towel rack and sees two body towels hanging on it and it clicks in her mind. 'Eddward didn't want to just stay close to Marie, he wanted her to come live with him.' She thinks figuring out her son's secret. 'I should have seen this coming really, it makes sense with how much they are into each other. I just hope Jake doesn't find out any time soon, I don't think he will be happy at all.' She thinks before opening the bathroom door.

"Jake honey, why don't we let the kids enjoy their limited time together and we go and try that Chinese place we saw on the drive over." Pam says to her husband as she walks out of the bathroom thinking the less time Jake was around the young couple the less of a chance he has of figuring out their secret.

"Hmm, alright." Jake says agreeing with Pam before turning back to his son. "Be good and do good at your schooling." He adds holding his hand out to Edd.

"I will Father." Edd says shaking his father's hand.

While Edd and Jake were saying their goodbyes Pam walked over to Marie who was still on the couch. "It's always a pleasure Marie." Pam says crouching down to be on Marie's level.

"It was nice seeing you too Pam." Marie says before she was surprised by Pam hugging her.

Pam hasn't hugged Marie much in the past to the point where Marie could count ever hug from Pam on one hand, but she was more surprised at what Pam whispered into her ear.

"Take good care of my boy Marie." Pam whispered very softly to Marie.

Marie was speechless. 'Shit, she knows.' Marie thinks the blood draining from her face again as Pam stood up. As she looked up at Pam at a loss for words Pam give her a quick wink and a smile before she walked away from the couch and over to Edd.

"Don't work too hard and at the very least you have to come home for Thanksgiving." Pam says hugging Edd.

"I won't and I will Mother." Edd says hugging her back.

"Oh my lord that was stressful." Edd says after closing the door but waited a few seconds to ensure his parents were not on the other side of it. "I was worried the whole time that they would figure out that you moved with me."

Marie gets up off the couch and walks over to him. "I'm pretty sure your mom figured it out." She says causing the blood to drain from Edd's face.

"I think my heart just stopped." He says falling against the door.

"It's ok Double Dee, I think she's ok with it." Marie says picking him up off the door. "We made it through their surprise visit and the more important thing is our dinner is done."

"It felt so wrong having to lie to my parents again." Edd says as they worked together to serve their dinner onto plates and into bowls.

"I know it does, but we won't have to after tomorrow remember?" Marie says setting the bowls down onto the counter.

Edd sets the plates down on the counter next to the bowls. "As if I could ever forget your birthday."

**AN: I really do not like the double spacing FFN dose, it makes it hard to space out days. Also a little request from you readers, my Microsoft Word Starter program has been bugging out (will randomly freeze up when I save, right click on spelling errors or when I exit the program) and I am looking for an alternative program. Can't use Google Docs as I sometimes write when I do not have a net connection, so any ones you can suggest I will take a look at and you will have my thanks.**


	6. Chapter 6

*Beep beep* the alarm goes off on the nightstand next to the bed and Edd quickly reached over to turn it off. He looks over at Marie lying next to him, the alarm appeared to have not woke her up which he was thankful for. Slowly and very quietly he gets out of the bed and grabs the change of clothes he'd laid out the night before then leaves the bedroom.

When the door closes Marie opens one eye and looks around. The alarm did wake her when it went off, but she guessed Edd had something planned for the morning, having gotten up an hour earlier than he normally does, so she faked sleeping while he was still in the room.

Marie rolls over onto her back and holds both of her hands up into the air. She looks at them and says; "Well I don't look any different now that I'm officially an adult."

She drops her hands down onto the bed and grabs the comforter and pulls it up to her chin. "And everyone always makes a big deal about turning eighteen." She says rolling onto Edd's pillow. "Well might as well let Double Dee do whatever he wants to do for my birthday." She adds closing her eyes.

Edd took a very fast shower when he left the bedroom and was now unlocking the trunk to his car. The day before Edd spent a few minutes after work wrapping Marie's gift before he picked her up from her job. It was just brown wrapping paper around the small box holding his gift. "I really hope she likes this." He says closing the trunk.

Back inside the apartment Edd is making quite a large mess while making breakfast for Marie. It was more difficult than he thought it would be to make blueberry pancakes from scratch. There are egg shell pieces all over the counter and there is a fine coating of flour over the counter as well. But even if he was making a big mess he didn't care, he's a man on a mission to make the best breakfast for Marie.

"I hope she likes these." He says taking the second pancake out of the frying pan.

When he was done Edd has a small stack of pancakes with syrup and blueberries on a plate, a mug full of coffee and a glass of orange juice sitting on the island counter next to Marie's gift.

"All that's left is to wake Marie." He says looking at his pocket watch and seeing that an hour has passed scene he woke up.

"Marie, it's time to wake up." Edd says gently shaking Marie thinking she was still asleep.

Marie rolls over onto her back. "Morning." She says smiling up at him.

Edd smiles back to at her. "Happy birthday Marie." He says before leaning down to kiss her.

Marie wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down to her as they kiss. Marie pulling Edd down surprised him, but he's use to her doing stuff like this so he just rolled with it and kissed her back.

Finally breaking the kiss Edd says; "I have a surprise for you in the other room if you're interested."

"Really? What is it?" Marie asks letting Edd sit up.

"You'll have to get out of bed to see." He says teasing her.

Marie enjoyed that he was playing around. "Ok." She says before tossing the comforter on him covering his head.

With Edd covered in the bedding Marie jumps out of the bed and runs for the door. "Come on slow poke." She says running out the door.

Edd pulls the comforter off of his head while laughing. 'She is a little energetic this morning.' He thinks tossing the comforter onto the bed. He gets up off the bed and quickly makes the bed before following Marie out of the bedroom.

When he exited the bedroom he is immediately attacked by Marie. "Thank you Double Dee." She says holding her gift in one hand as she hugs and kisses Edd.

For her birthday gift Edd bought one of the newer used IPod music players that he was looking at when they were at Books and More for the first time. The CD player Marie has she's owned since before Edd and her started dating and was now old and doesn't work sometimes when she would try and use it.

"I'm glad you like it Marie, I wanted to download your music onto it for you but I didn't want you to find out what I got you." Edd says when Marie breaks the kiss.

"That's ok Muffin. If you really want to, you can do that while I eat my birthday pancakes."

As Marie ate her birthday breakfast Edd put all of Marie's music she's downloaded onto his computer over the years into the IPod.

"You did a really good job on the pancakes Double Dee." Marie says before eating the last piece of pancake.

"I'm glad you are enjoying them Marie, I was unsure if I was making them right at first." Edd says looking away from his computer.

"Well they are delicious." She says taking a drink from her mug of coffee.

"You sure you don't want me to give you a ride to work?" Edd asks as Marie puts some of her drawing pencils into her purse.

"I don't mind walking to work, gives me a chance to use my gift and will let you work on cleaning up your mess." Marie says pointing at the kitchen as she picked up her sketch book she's been drawing the book of Edd's story in.

"I should take care of that." He says looking at the mess in the kitchen area of the apartment.

Marie turns on her new IPod. "Have fun, but not too much fun without me Muffin." She says smiling at Edd.

Edd smiles back at her. "I won't, you have a good day at work and I will see you tonight."

Marie grabs Edd and pulls him into a hung and then kisses him. "I love you Edd, thank you for a special birthday breakfast and the gift." She says holding him tight and resting her head against his chest.

Edd holds her tight in his arms feeling the warm and fuzzy feeling only Marie has ever caused him to feel. "It was my pleasure my love, you do only ever get one eighteenth birthday."

Edd has never called Marie "my love" before, and she loved it. "I feel like I underachieved on your birthday now."

Edd thinks back on his last birthday. "Those black silk boxers with little white skulls were definitely memorable."

"Same with the look on your mom's face." Marie adds looking up at him.

"She was at a loss for words for a very long time. But spending the evening out in the woods under the stars just the two of us just listening to music was the best birthday I've ever had." Edd says naming the best part of his eighteenth birthday.

"Not counting all the making out we did?" Marie asks remembering the best part in her mind.

"That too was enjoyable." Edd says as his cheeks turn a faint shade of red.

"Morning Sidney." Marie says walking into Little Arts seeing her boss sitting behind the register as she turned off her IPod.

Sidney looks over and smiles at her new employee. "Good morning and happy birthday Marie."

"Thanks, so what ya need me to do today?" Marie asks wrapping her earbuds up excited to start working.

"Nothing for a while. I'm supposed to get a truck in today, but that's not going to be for a few hours. So why don't you sit here and watch the shop and the register while I go and take a nap." Sidney says getting up off the stool she was sitting on.

"Ok, enjoy your nap." Marie says setting her purse and sketch book down onto the counter.

For two hours Marie sat behind the register counter watching the shop. There were a few customers during the morning but most of the time Marie was drawing in her sketchbook working on the story book.

When she started this project she's written down the story Edd told her, she did have to ask him a few questions to get the entire story, but he didn't suspect her reasons for asking. She doesn't have much of a plan for the book and has just been coming up with ideas for how things should look on the fly.

She hears the bell above the front door ring and looks up from her sketch book and sees a middle aged woman walk into the store. They made eye contact but Marie didn't greet her, just because she likes this job doesn't mean she is going to stop being a Kanker and be friendly.

"You must be Sidney's new part timer." The woman says approaching Marie.

Marie doesn't set her pencil down but she does look up from her work. "I am, do ya need something?" She asks.

"Yes, Sidney should have a special order for me." The woman says stealing glance at Maries sketch book.

Sidney told Marie to never leave the storefront unattended when there is a customer in the store, but the lady in front of her doesn't seem like the kind of person to steal from the store to Marie.

"I'll go and ask her about it. Who should I say is here in case she asks?" Marie asks getting up from the stool behind the counter.

"Tell her that Jacqueline is asking." The woman says naming herself.

"K, I'll be back in a bit." Marie says walking away from Jacqueline

In the back room Marie finds Sidney lying on the couch she has in her office reading a magazine. "Hey Sidney, there is a Jacqueline here looking for a special order." Marie says walking into the office.

Sidney looks at the watch on her wrist. "On time like always." She says lowering her arm. "There should be a box behind my desk with her name on it. She's already paid for the order so she just needs to sign for it."

"K." Marie says walking over to the desk in the office. She finds a box behind Sidney's desk with Jacqueline's name on it and picks it up. "Ok got it, enjoy the rest of your nap." She says walking towards the door.

"I'll try to, you always don't feel tired anymore when you go to take a rest when you get to my age." Sidney says going back to reading her magazine.

Marie carries the box out of the back room and sees Jacqueline looking at her in progress drawing that she left her sketch book open to.

"Got your order." Marie says mad that Jacqueline is looking at her sketch book. Besides Edd and her former art teacher, she's never let anyone look at her sketch book.

"Oh." Jacqueline says surprised by Marie's sudden appearance. "I was just admiring your work, you have a lot of skill and talent for someone so young."

Being complemented about her work quelled most of Marie's anger. "Thanks."

"Do you do a lot of illustrations?" Jacqueline asks as Marie sets the box down on the counter.

"No, it's the first time I've ever done one." Marie says looking under the counter for a pen.

Jacqueline looks back down at Marie's drawing. "Hum, have you taken any courses on drawing?" She asks curious as to what formal training Marie's had.

Marie finds a pen and stands up. "Just the art classes I took back at Peach Creek High."

"Oh I'm good friends with Donna, you wouldn't happen to be Marie would you?"

"Depends on who's asking." Marie asks her Kanker defenses kicking in.

"I teach at the college and Donna once showed me some of your work a few years ago. You have a gift Marie, the few she showed me were better works than some of my students were doing at the time."

Marie enjoyed the praising she was getting. "What can I say? I got them skills."

"Have you ever thought of taking a class at the college? It could help you develop more." Jacqueline asks.

Marie wanted to tell Jacqueline that she didn't want some wash up to tell her how to do something she loved, but Marie kind of likes this lady and holds back. "Not really, this is just a hobby of mine."

"Well hobby or not, keep working at it and you might end up doing something with your talent."

"I'll keep that in mind, but I need ya to sign for your order." Marie says wanting to change the topic so Jacqueline couldn't push the topic of going to school for art anymore.

Jacqueline takes the pen from Marie and sign's the forum attached to the top of the box. She pulls the forum off of the box and holds it out to Marie. "It was nice talking to you Marie." She says setting the pen down.

Marie takes the forum from her, she was unsure where to put it so she opens the register and sticks it in the far left slot. Closing the register she says; "Uh, you too, have a good day."

It was the first day since moving to Lemon Brook that Edd has nothing important to do. He spent a few hours cleaning the apartment, but it wasn't that dirty, and after that he still had most of the day left until he needed to start working on his plans for the evening.

"I am officially out of stuff to do." Edd says tossing a dirty paper towel into the trashcan next to the fridge. "I wonder what I should do? I could get some reading done." He says walking to his book shelf. "We're talking to ourselves again Eddward." He adds realizing he's been talking to himself out loud.

Reading was Edd's favorite pass time, and before he knew it hours have past and it was time to start the second set of plans he's come up with for Marie's birthday. He planned to make a dinner of spaghetti in red sauce with garlic bread, they don't have the materials he needs to make the meal in the apartment so he leaves the apartment to go to the grocery store they visited on the first morning living in Lemon Brook.

There are only a few things Edd needed from the store so he grabs a hand basket when he enters the large building. With memory of his last trip to the store Edd was quickly able to find the few items he needed, spaghetti noodles and a jar of sauce. He wished he could make the meal from scratch, but he doesn't trust his cooking skill past boiling water and setting a timer for the oven.

As he walked around the bakery section looking for garlic bread he spots a large cupcake in a plastic container. "This is almost too perfect of a coincidence." He says picking up the large cupcake with chocolate frosting.

Deciding to get the cupcake as well for Marie he carefully sets it inside of the basket before continuing his search for garlic bread. And a few steps past the table the cupcake was on he finds a basket with loaves of French bread garlic bread in paper bags. Edd picks up one of the packages and sees really simple cooking instructions on the back of it.

"Hum…" He says reading the instructions. "Seems easy." He says adding the garlic bread to his basket. "Well that's everything I need."

Walking to the front of the store to the registers Edd walks through the floral section and something catches his eye. Stopping and looking over he sees a bunch of different flowers of all colors in a vase. And on closer inspection he sees that they are for individual sale. In the vase he spots a single blue rose and another idea comes to him as he looks at the unique flower. He takes the blue rose out of the vase and then looks around for a dozen roses.

"I hope she likes this." He says grabbing the bouquet of roses.

Just as he finishes setting out the plates and cutlery he hears the lock of the door click and then the door itself open.

"Welcome home Cupcake." Edd says as Marie enters the apartment.

Marie looks over at Edd and a smile crosses her face. "Hey there handsome, it's been awhile since I've seen you dressed all fancy." She says commenting on how Edd was dressed.

Edd looks down at himself with a smile, he's changed into a pair of his old dress pants and a black dress shirt with his black tie with the little white skulls on it. "I thought I should dress up for your birthday dinner." He says looking back up.

"Oh? Are we going out to dinner?" She asks closing the door.

"No, I made us some dinner." Edd says taking a step to the side so Marie could see the pot sitting on the stove.

"Ooo, what did you make me Muffin?" Marie asks excited that Edd has made her a birthday dinner.

"It's nothing special, just some simple spaghetti in red sauce and garlic bread." Edd says looking over his shoulder at the food.

Marie sets her purse and sketch book down on the island counter. "Just because it's simple doesn't mean it's not special." She says walking over to him.

Marie wraps her arms around his neck as Edd says; "I know, I just wish I was better at cooking so I could have made you something fancier." He says setting his hands on her hips.

"You know I don't care if it's fancy or not." She says before kissing him.

When they break the kiss Edd remembers that he had one more gift for Marie. "I have something else for you." He says letting go of her.

This has already been the best birthday Marie has ever had and she couldn't think of what else Edd could do. "What did ya get me?" She asks getting excited.

Edd steps out of Marie's hold and walks over to the couch. He'd hidden the bouquet of roses behind the couch so Marie wouldn't see it right away. "Happy birthday Cupcake." He says holding the flowers out to her.

"Edd, you didn't need too…" Marie says feeling the warm and fuzzies. "Why the blue one though?" She asks unsure why Edd added a blue rose into the bouquet.

"Well a blue rose means mystery, an appreciation for the enigmatic, the inexplicable is expressed by blue roses. A tantalizing vision that cannot be totally pinned down, a mystery that cannot be fully unraveled is the blue rose. And a person who receives the blue rose is the subject of much speculation and thought. A complex personality that does not allow easy interpretation is what the blue rose indicates, you Marie are my blue rose. I never fully knew how complex of a person you were when we were younger, and I am still learning about you and want to never stop learning." Edd says explaining his reason behind the blue rose.

Marie was at a loss for words, hearing Edd's explanation set her heart ablaze with her love for Edd. Without a word Marie walks over to Edd and takes the flowers from him. "Promise me one thing Edd." She says looking into the roses feeling a tear of joy forming. "Never, ever stop being you." She adds before jump hugging him.

Edd hugs her back. "I promise you Marie Kanker that I will always be me, just like I want you to always be you." He says holding her tight in his arms.

"I love you Double Dee, this has been the best birthday in the history of forever. And I can safely say I think our lives together are basically perfect right now." Marie says letting go of Edd.

"I love you too Marie, and I have to agree. Everything is going in the right direction." Edd says as the timer on the microwave dings. "And that would be the garlic bread, shall we enjoy our dinner then?"

The dinner was a simple one, but Marie still enjoyed it and claimed it as Edd's best cooking, which was technically true as Edd has only ever cooked with instructions from either Marie or a box.

When she finished her plate of spaghetti Edd gets up and walks over to the fridge. "I hope you still have some room left for cake." He says opening the door of the fridge.

"Cake? I always have room for cake." Marie says excited once again over Edd getting her something for her birthday.

Edd takes the large cupcake out of the fridge. "When I was at the store earlier I saw this and thought you would like it." He says setting the cupcake down in front of her.

"A cupcake cake for your cupcake, that is so cheesy that it's adorable." Marie says as Edd pulls a clean fork out of the drawer.

Edd hands her the fork as he sits down and it clicks in his head how a cupcake shaped cake would be a little silly to give her given that his pet name for her is Cupcake. "Now that I am thinking of it like that it kind of is a little cheesy."

"Good thing I like cheesy." She says sticking the fork into the cupcake cake.

For every bight of the cake Marie ate she would teas Edd with a peace before feeding it to him. The form of teasing she was getting the most enjoyment from was poking him in the nose with a peace of frosting covered cake and then kissing the frosting off before feeding him the cake and she could tell that he was enjoying all of the flirting teasing as well. But once the last peace was eaten, by Marie, she was a little disappointed that the flirting with the cake was over.

"Thanks for dinner Muffin." Marie says leaning over to Edd.

Edd leans over to her and says; "Your welcome Cupcake." Before he kisses her.

Marie leans further into the kiss wrapping her arms around his neck and starts to play with the hair on the back of his head.

Without fully realizing or knowing how Marie did it, she made her way onto Edd's lap never breaking their kiss. It was taking all of Edd's concentration to not fall off the stool while still holding and kissing Marie, but when they almost fell backwards Edd quickly takes a hand from under the back of Marie's shirt and grabs the island counter preventing the fall.

Marie noticed the almost fall and breaks the kiss not wanting the fun to end, but also not wanting them to get hurt. Both are breathing heavily as she slides off his lap and takes his hand and starts leading him away from the kitchen.

They take a few steps towards the bedroom door before Edd surprises Marie by picking her up in his arms.

Having Edd carry her only excites Marie more. "I know Mom doesn't want grandkids, but that doesn't mean we can't give it the old college try." She says kissing his neck as she starts to undo the buttons on his dress shirt.

"So long as we are safe." Edd says kicking the room door closed causing Marie to let out a giggle.

Once again Edd awoke before Marie. After their intimate night Edd ended up falling asleep in just his boxers shorts and Marie has his black dress shirt on. Looking down at the blue haired girl he's holding in his arms Edd starts thinking about her. He's said several times in the past that he would love Marie forever and wants to be with her forever, but it was always been in the heat of the moment and he's never really thought fully about their future. Edd knows that he's come out of his shell and grown a lot as a person over the past few years and it is mostly thanks to Marie. He doesn't let Eddy boss him a round and stands up for himself against people. He's even lying to his parents about living with Marie in Lemon Brook, something fifteen year-old Edd would never have thought to do. He also knows that Marie has grown too, her manners have improved and her former coworker was the only person she'd hit all that year. Whether it was all Edd's influence or him just learning about the real Marie he was unsure, but he does know that he loves her more than he's ever loved something or someone.

Marie stirs against him and starts subconsciously runs her fingers through the hairs on his chest giving him a faint tickle. He smiles as she tickles him. 'I wonder what life has in store for us still.' He thinks resting his head back against the pillow.

He starts to think about what life could be like years from now, would they still be in Lemon Brook or even in this apartment? He doesn't know, what he does know that he defiantly wants to be with Marie for the rest of his days even if she seems unsure about the idea of marriage right now.

He also wants to be successful to give Marie the life she deserves, but he remembers how little time he saw his parents growing up and doesn't want that for himself. He always wants to have the time to spend with Marie and spoil her like enjoys doing.

Looking over at the alarm clock on the nightstands he sees that its getting close to when they need to get up for the day.

He doesn't want to wake Marie up, he doesn't want them to be late for work either. "Marie." He says shaking her.

She makes a noise of defiance not waiting to get up and tightening her grasp on Edd.

"I know you want to sleep in, but we need to get so we can get ready for work." He says shaking her again.

"And you need to clean up the kitchen." Marie says opening her eyes and looking up at him.

Edd lets out a laugh. "I need to do that as well."

Marie pushes herself up off of Edd and leans up to kiss him. "Thank you again for the best birthday I've ever had." She says when they break the kiss.

"It was my pleasure Marie."

Marie and Edd clean up their clothing from where it was thrown during the night, and some articles of clothing ended up in some strange places.

"Um Edd, how did my bra end up shut in the closet door?" Marie asks opening the door to the closet to retrieve her undergarment.

"I haven't the foggiest, but probability the same way that lead to my left shoe getting into my nightstand." Edd says opening the draw to his nightstand to put away the ribbon of prophylactics that was hastily pulled out during the night.

Marie tosses her bra along with the rest of her clothes she wore the day before into the laundry baskets in the closet. "Heh, we were a little crazy last night."

Edd gets up from the bed to put away his own dirty clothing. "You will not hear a complaint from me." He says tossing his clothing into the baskets.

Hearing Edd says that surprised Marie. While it is very clear to Marie that Edd dose enjoy their adult activities, she's never heard him say so in such a manner. "Good to know." She says grinning. "I call dibs on the shower, unless you want to join me?" her grin turns into her wicked smile as she asks Edd if he would want to join her in the shower.

Edd's face turns red at the idea of showering with Marie. "A-as much as I am sure that it would be… a memorable AND enjoyable experience. I must decline Marie, as we do have work today and I have a feeling that such activity would cause us to be late." He says trying to keep his composure over the idea of Marie and him showing together.

Marie lets out a sad sigh that was only half sadness and half fake. "I guess… but the offer stands."

As Marie showers Edd cleans up the kitchen of the mess it was left in the night before. He was lucky that when making the dinner he planned out enough for there to be two servings of spaghetti, the garlic bread he'd put away when he finished serving the dish, so he didn't have any food that would go to waste.

"If this is how life is going to be here then, this is going to be a good life." He says to himself as he fills the sink with hot water to wash the dishes.

While Edd drove Marie and himself to work, back in Peach Creek Ed and May are enjoying some quality time together. They're down in Ed's basement bedroom reading comics while leaning against Ed's bed. Comics were originally just a way to get Ed to talk to her, but now they are one of the cornerstones of May's relationship with Ed. And all the comics she's read helped with her grades in school too, it was not the same as Edd helping Marie almost every day, but still put her equal with Lee.

As she finishes the book she was reading her Kanker ways trigger an idea in her head. "Hey Ed." She says leaning over to the tall boy on her left.

Ed lowers his book, a feat only May has made him do. "Yes May?" he asks looking over to her.

May leans right up to him holding back a grin as she whispers; "Hail Hydra."

Ed knew what she was talking about, having just watched the new episode of the TV show she was quoting the night before with her, he lets a look of fear cover his face. "Oh no." He says setting the comic book down. "You are one of the too May?"

"Yes Ed, and you will comply." May says getting onto her knees to get closer to Ed.

Ed gets up and starts backing away trying to look serious as he played around with May. "Say it is not so May."

May also gets to her feet and starts to walk towards Ed unable to hide her grin anymore. "Do not resist Ed, Hydra only wishes to make the works a better place, you will comply."

"Never!" Ed yells as he turns to run away from May also grinning.

As Ed ran around his room and May chased him they both started to laugh. It was not the same kind of chasing May used to do to Ed when they were younger, it was a playful flirting kind of chasing.

"You will never catch me!" Ed says turning to look at May. But as he did, he doesn't see that he's running right toward his bed, and before he knows it he hits his bed and falls onto it knocking his glasses off his face.

Taking advantage of his fall May jumps onto the bed and turns him onto his back and pins him to the bed by sitting on him. "I told you not to resist Ed, you will comply." She says holding his hands down to his sides.

Ed is strong enough that if he wanted to he could pick May up off his stomach and free himself from her grasp, but he prefers to keep playing along. "Do your worst, there is nothing you can do that will break me." He says pretending to fight against her restraint.

"I know just what to do Ed." She says leaning down close to him. "You will comply." She whispers just before kissing him.

The kiss sets off the usual emotions May kissing Ed dose. Joy that he is close to the girl he is dating, excitement that they are kissing and bewilderment that he is in a relationship with May Kanker, the girl he once thought of as the scariest person on earth. They may have been only dating for a couple of months now, but Ed had feeling for her for a while before that night after the movies when they finally became more than just friends.

May of course was just like her sisters in that she's like her Ed sense they were in middle school. And as she kissed him she was overcome by the feeling of joy she always gets when she is with Ed, sense her one wish in life was to have Ed return her affection.

May breaks the kiss and with a grin she asks; "Will you comply?"

"I will comply." Ed says as May hugs his chest and Ed hugs her back

They lay there holding each other in silence enjoying the feeling of have each other in their arms.

"Ed, you know you're my best friend right?" May asks breaking the silence of the room

Ed hugs her closer. "I know May."

"And I know Double Dee and Eddy are your best friends and I would never want to replace them." She says resting the side of her head against his chest.

"But Eddy and Double Dee are more than just best friends May, they are my brothers. We're just not related by blood."

"Ok…" May says unsure what Ed is talking about.

"Don't you see, that make you my best friend too Mayday." Ed says telling May that he thinks of her as his best friend.

"Aww Ed, you are the best." She says her grin growing to maximum size. Hearing him say that made her want to, as Marie would put it, jump him and start kissing him, But he still can be a little timid and get scared if she tries to push him. So she just leans up and gives him a quick kiss. May has been feeling like Ed might still have some fears about her or girls in general and that is why all they have ever done is cuddle and kiss when she knows both of her sisters have gone all the way with their Ed's.

At the thought of her sisters it dawned on May that she hasn't seen much of Lee the past few days. "You know, I haven't seen Lee a lot." She says not moving her head from its place on Ed's chest.

"Yeah, Eddy has been keeping to himself too, you think they are hiding out together?" Ed asks pointing out that he hasn't seen Eddy sense they got back from helping move Edd and Marie's couch.

"I hope so, but then I don't want to think about what they are doing together."

"Yeah that is something I would not like to know too."

"But it's what people do when they are dating though." She says trying to hint that she would be interested in progressing their relationship.

"I guess you're right." Ed says missing May's hint.

May lifts her head up from his chest and looks up at him. "Everything seems to be changing lately."

"It is to be expected that things are going to change as we grow, high school is behind us now and we are starting real life." Ed says smiling at her.

"But were not going to change right?" She asks a little worried that they might grow apart eventually.

"We are going to grow, but I don't think so much we'd change to the point that we'd not like each other." Ed says reassuring her.

"Good, I'd hate to have to go back to chasing after you." May says before she kisses him again. 'I guess maybe I'll have to take the lead to get Ed to be interested in something other than kissing.' She thinks returning her head back to his former resting place. 'But I shouldn't go too fast.'


	7. Chapter 7

It was the first day since moving to Lemon Brook that the weather wasn't sunny and clear skies, it's been raining heavily all day and Marie didn't like it.

"This storm came out of nowhere." Marie says looking out the window of the main room of the apartment.

"It is a bit strange." Edd says walking up behind her with two mugs of coffee in his hands.

Marie turns around to face him. "You don't think it's an omen of some kind do you?" She asks taking one of the mugs from him.

Edd looks up at the rain clouds and his scientific mind kicks in. "I highly doubt that, this rain is just part of the coming winter season. I could go into detail about the tilt of the earth on its axis resulting the changing of the climate and the dropping of the temperature, but-"

"I wouldn't understand any of it, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't listen to all of it and enjoy the way you act when you talk nerdy to me." She says cutting him off and turning back to face the window.

Edd smiles and wraps his free arm around Marie. "You are the best Marie." He says giving her a one armed hug.

"Damn straight. So… are you going to tell me?" She asks leaning into his hug.

"Well as the northern hemisphere moves further.-"

*Knock knock.*

'Damn it people! We were having a moment!' Marie thinks mad that someone was once again at their door interrupting them.

Edd takes his arm back from around Marie also sad that their moment was cut short. "I'll get it." He says walking away from Marie.

Marie lets out a long sigh as Edd walks away, Sidney didn't need Marie till later in the day to help her close up the shop and Edd has his first day of class so she knew that she wouldn't get to see him for most of the day.

Dropping down onto the couch, not spilling a drop of her coffee, Marie hears the door opening.

"Eddy? What are you doing here? Surely you should still be a work at eleven in the morning." Edd says shocked to see Edd this early in the day.

"I got a problem Double Dee, a big problem." Eddy says his voice lacking its usual superior demeanor.

"What did you do now stubs? Did you forget how to call people on the phone?" Marie asks mad at Eddy.

Either Eddy didn't hear Marie or he chose to just ignore her. "This is big man, like the biggest problem ever." Eddy says grabbing Edd by the arms and shaking him.

"Calm down and tell me what has happened Eddy." Edd says as Eddy's shaking gets more aggressive.

"Lee… Lees pregnant…" Eddy says with fear in his eyes.

Luckily Marie was in the process of setting her mug of coffee down on the floor, having no other place to put it, so when she let go of the mug it only fell an inch or two. "What?" She says clenching her fist.

"Are you serious Eddy?" Edd asks not seeing Marie getting up off the couch.

"I don't know what to do man. I need your help." Eddy says also not seeing Marie's movement.

Marie's distrust of men has never applied to Edd, having never had a reason to not trust Edd, but Eddy has always pushes his luck with Marie and now she's just reached a new level of anger with him.

Surprising both Edd and Eddy Marie grabs Eddy by his arms and slams him up against the wall. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Are that stupid that you can't control yourself enough to think about what you're doing?" She yells at him with anger in her eyes.

Edd knows he should have stopped Marie from attacking Eddy, but he thinks Eddy deserves Marie's anger. He too thinks Eddy has acted poorly and he should have known better to prevent the situation he is in.

"Why did you drive all the way here? You could have called." Edd says crossing his arms letting Marie continue to hold him up against the wall.

"I don't know man, I panicked and you were the first person I thought of to ask for help." Eddy says trying to fight against Marie.

Marie wanted to pound on Eddy until he starts crying, but it wouldn't help Lee to have the father of her unborn baby in the hospital. "You have to man up you little prick, you are going to go back to my sister and do whatever she wants, or May and I will hunt you down to the end of the earth." She says slamming him against the wall again.

"Ow! Stop that." Eddy says when Marie slams him. "So what should I do Double Dee?" He asks ignoring Marie.

Edd looks over at Marie and sees the anger on her face. "I think." He says uncrossing his arms and putting a hand on Marie's shoulder. "That this is something you have to figure out on your own Eddy. I can't bail you out, I will say that you should listen to the lady that clearly wants to hurt you."

"So get going, NOW!" Marie says finally letting Eddy go.

Eddy didn't expect Marie to let go of him so he ended up falling to the floor. Edd wanted to offer a hand to help Eddy up off the floor, but he was not in a mood to give Eddy any help.

Eddy picks himself up off the floor. "Thanks man, for nothing." He says not thinking about what he's saying.

Marie grabs Eddy by the throat with one hand. "Double Dee isn't the one that fucked up, he's not the one that got my sister pregnant. All he's ever done is bail you out of every damn scheme you tried and you never showed him any gratitude. Leave now Eddy and pray that I don't find you if Lee is hurt." She says squeezing his neck tight enough so he couldn't get out of her grasp, but not so much that he couldn't breathe.

Edd felt like this was a bit too much punishment for Marie to put Eddy through. "Marie." He says squeezing her shoulder.

At the sound of his voice she releases her grip on his neck. "Leave." Marie says turning to walk away from Edd and Eddy.

"She's right Eddy, and I think you should leave and go back to Lee." Edd says opening the door.

Eddy doesn't say a word, he just walks through the door with his head hung low.

"Marie." Edd says walking over to her.

"This is bad Edd, real bad." She says turning to face him. The look of anger she had in her eyes when she was yelling at Eddy has been replaced with a look of fear. "This is, this is."

Edd grabs Marie and pulls her into a hug, he could tell that she was overloading with emotions. "It'll be ok Marie. Lee is a strong person, she will make it through this like you Kanker sisters always do." He says trying to comfort her.

"I don't want to see Lee going through the same stuff our mom did with us." Marie says finding comfort in Edd's arms as her mind starts to get back on track.

"I can't say that it's going to be completely different Marie, but one thing I can promise is that Lee will not be alone. She has you and May, and Ed and me and if I have to force him, Eddy will be there too. Family looks out for family." Edd says petting Marie's hair. 'It makes sense why Lee was acting strange when we left.' He thinks remembering how out of character Lee was when he went to pick Marie up.

"Mom is not going to be happy at all about this, I need to talk to Lee." Marie says pulling her cell phone out of her pocket.

Ms. Kanker was not happy at all about this when Lee told her earlier that morning. She was sitting down in the kitchen drinking a mug of tea when her eldest daughter walked into the kitchen.

"Morning Lee." Ms. Kanker says to Lee.

"Hey." Lee says looking away from her mother.

Ms. Kanker could tell right away that there is something wrong with her daughter by the way she greeted her mother. "Everything ok?" She asks setting the mug down.

"I'm… I'm late Mom…" Lee says still not looking at her mother.

As a mother Ms. Kanker knew right away what Lee meant by the veg-ness of her statement. "How late are we talking about here Lee?"

"A week, maybe more."

Ms. Kanker lets out a sigh as she stands up. "Come on then." She says walking towards the door.

"Where are we going?" Lee asks surprised that her mother wanted to go somewhere.

"To a pharmacy."

"And now we wait." Ms. Kanker says as Lee sets the pregnancy test down on the edge of the sink.

"I don't see why you made me take that test, I could not be…" Lee says not wanting to believe what she already knew was true. She knows she's too young for this and she knows what kind of a man Eddy is, he might bolt on her when she tells him and she doesn't want to be alone.

"I'm not stupid Lee, you wouldn't have brought this up if you didn't already know yourself." Ms. Kanker says pushing Lee down onto the closed toilet as she sat down on the edge of the bathtub. "What you need to do is start thinking about what you want to do. I won't force you to do anything, the choice in the end is ultimately your. If you want to keep the baby then you're going to have to prepare for it, eating right, taking care of yourself better and learning about how to care for a baby. But if you don't want to keep the baby, you could give it up for adoption. Or if you really do not think you can handle all of this, then we can take a second trip down to the hospital and no one would have to know." Ms. Kanker says putting her hand on Lee's knee.

"I honestly thought you would be mad at me Mom, this is a big mess up." Lee says still not able to look at her mother due to shame.

Ms. Kanker picks her daughters head up so she could looker her on the eye, well as best as she can with Lee's hair always in her face. "It's more important that I be supportive then mad."

Lee looks her mother back in the eye. "I, I think I should call Eddy and talk to him before I make any final decision." She says thinking that Eddy should have some say in the decision.

Ms. Kanker smiles and pats her daughter on the leg. "Ok Lee, I need to leave for work, you call me if you need anything and I will see you and your sister tonight."

"Thanks Mom, and I'm sorry." Lee says as her mother gets up off the tub.

"Nothing to be sorry about Lee, accidents happen, and they sometimes are not a bad thing. They can sometimes be crazy redheaded kicked you need to get your life in order."

A smile comes to Lee, the first one she's had all day, when her mother referenced that Lee herself was what made Ms. Kanker start to change her life for the better. "Have a good day at work Mom."

When Lee called Eddy and asked him to come over so they could talk she was starting to feel optimistic that maybe being pregnant wouldn't be so bad. But not it's over and hour after that phone call and she's now lying on her bed looking at the ceiling with red eyes.

*Ring ring* her cell phone goes off in her pocket.

Slowly she reached into the pocket of her faded blue jeans and pulls out her phone. She doesn't look to see who was calling before she answered it. "What." She says into the phone.

"Lee, its Marie." Lee hears her sister say through the phone.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Eddy was just here."

"Damn it! That little prick went running to Double Dee didn't he?"

"He did, and he said you're pregnant. Please tell me that he was lying so I can kill him."

Lee lets out a long sigh. "If you did that, who would help pay for this?"

"Fuck."

"My thought exactly."

"Does Mom know?"

"She does."

"What did she say? Did she yell at you?"

"Mom was, understanding. I'm sure she is mad, but she knew there was nothing getting mad about it would do."

"Did, did you like know somehow?"

"I felt different and I knew I was acting different, but I just thought it was me getting all emo over you leaving."

"What are you going to do Lee?"

"I don't know. I wanted to talk it over with Eddy, but when I told him he was speechless and walked out of the trailer backwards slowly."

"I'm coming home Lee, you need me there."

"For what? To clean and wait on me hand and foot? No you stay where you are."

"But we stick together and have each other's backs, no matter what. Remember." Marie says reciting the Kanker Sisters moto.

"Look Marie, you've got a good thing going for ya self with Edd up there, and you shouldn't interrupt it over a mistake I made with that good for nothing boyfriend of mine." Lee says sitting up in the bed.

"But-."

"No buts Marie. You stay put, and that's an order." Lee says before ending the call.

It did Lee good knowing that Marie cared about her enough to run home, but Lee knew that she couldn't let Marie get trapped in the trailer park again.

"Than dumb sister of mine, can't even see that she's not only the best of us, but has the best chance at a great life." Lee says laying back down on the bed.

Less then an hour later there was a faint knock at the front door. Lee drags herself off the bed and slowly makes her way down the stairs to the door.

When she opens the door she sees Eddy standing on the steps to the trailer soaking wet from the rain.

Lee glares at him and slaps him hard across the face. "I deserved that." Eddy says rubbing his cheek where Lee's hand made contact.

"That you did, you little prick." She says mad at him for leaving earlier.

"I'm sorry for earlier, can I come in?" He asks preparing for another attack from Lee.

Lee raises her hand to strike him again, but changes her mind. "Might as well, it wouldn't do me any good if you died from the cold." She says standing to the side to let Eddy into the trailer.

When Marie started her phone call to Lee Edd went into the kitchen to give her some privacy as she talked to her sister on the phone.

"Is Lee ok?" Edd asks slowly making his way over to the couch where Marie was sitting.

"As far as I can tell she is, but I need to go home and see her regardless if she told me not too."

"While I cannot understand the situation fully, I think you should do as she asked and give her some time." Edd says sitting down next to her.

"But-." Marie says wanting to argue her point.

But Edd cuts her off. "But, that doesn't mean we cannot drive back to see her in a few day." He says agreeing that they should go and see her sister, just not right at that moment.

"Ok." Marie says agreeing with him. "In and few days. Why didn't I notice this?"

"Your sister is a very closed off person."

"I guess." Marie says rolling over to bury her face into Edd's chest. "Shit I was right about the rain being an omen."

"It might have been, but storms do pass Marie." He says hugging her.

A few days later Edd and Marie are in Edd's car driving down the highway to Peach Creek. The past few days have been somewhat of a challenge for Marie, her mind has been on her sister so much she couldn't concentrate on anything. She's even put off working on her story book sense the phone call to Lee.

When they finally reached the Park and Flush they are surprised to see Eddy's truck parked by the Kanker family trailer.

"This is unexpected." Edd says as he turned off the engine of his car.

"Ten bucks says Lee killed him and never moved his truck." Marie says unbuckling her seatbelt.

Edd unbuckles his own belt. "I hope not."

When Edd knocks on the door to the trailer they are surprised to see Eddy answering the door.

"What are guys doing here?" Eddy asks holding the door open.

"I could ask you the same thing." Marie says crossing her arms.

"I'm here seeing Lee." Eddy says pointing behind himself with his thumb.

"Well I came to see my sister, so stand aside." Marie says pushing Eddy out of the way.

Marie's push made Eddy stumble backwards. "Jesus, she's in the living room." He says catching himself on the wall.

"Let's let the sisters have some privacy Eddy and head into the kitchen." Edd says leading Eddy into the kitchen.

In the living room Marie finds Lee sitting on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table picking at a salad with a fork.

"Hey." Marie says walking into the room.

Lee looks over at her sister. "I thought I told you not to come back here." She says stabbing a leaf of lettuce.

"You didn't say I couldn't come and visit." Marie says dropping down onto the couch next to Lee.

"Fair point." Lee says picking up the leaf with the fork and looking at it.

Watching her sister eating a leafy green surprised Marie. "When did you start eating salads?" She asks unable to recall the last time she saw Lee eat lettuce.

"Eddy brought it for me." Lee says taking a bite out of the leaf.

Marie's eyes grow wide. "He did?" She asks unable to believe that Eddy did something considerate for someone else.

"Yeah." Lee says moving leafs around on her plate. "He's been doing this kind of stuff every day."

"Every day?" Marie asks her disbelief growing.

"Yeah, he's been coming by after work with food like this and he's been doing whatever I've wanted him to do. Which has been giving me a foot massage." Lee says eating another leaf.

"Wow, where did this come from?"

"Not sure, but I'm liking this new Eddy."

While Marie and Lee talked in the living room, Edd and Eddy were catching up in the kitchen.

"Sorry for how we treated you the other day Eddy." Edd says as he sits down at the kitchen table.

"Its fine man, I deserved it all." Eddy says sitting down in one of the other chairs.

"Still, I should have stopped Marie from choking you." Edd says now regretting what Marie did to Eddy, but only a little regret.

Eddy points at Edd. "Dude, if you guys hadn't knocked some brains into me I wouldn't be here."

Edd was curious as to why Eddy is at the trailer. "Why are you here Eddy?" He asks wanting to know Eddy's reason for being there.

"I'm doing what you told me to do, I'm manning and trying to be an adult for Lee."

"That's good to hear Eddy, thought I do wish this change would have come from different circumstances." Edd says glad that Eddy is finally growing up.

"Can't change the past, all we can do is learn from it right?" Eddy says using a line Edd would normally use.

Edd makes a small smile. "That is true."

"Hold up." Eddy says as he got up from the table and walked to the entrance way into the kitchen. "Hey Lee, you need anything else?" He asks yelling into the living room.

"Yeah, bring me something to drink." Lee yelled back to him before turning to Marie. "It's kind of nice having him doing stuff for me."

Marie figured it was time to push the topic that she's wanted to bring up. "So… have you decided what you're going to do?" She asks bringing up the topic that Marie has had in the back of her mind for days.

"I'm not sure." Lee says. When Eddy came back they had the talk Lee wanted to in the first place, but they kind of avoided the topic of what they are going to do once the baby is born. She does like that Eddy is being an adult and not his normal selfish childish self but she's not sure if she'd want to raise a kid with him. "I'll figure it out eventually."

Marie was about to scold Lee for not thinking more about what she's going to do once the baby is born, but she heard the door open and May yelling; "I'm home."

There was one other thing Marie wanted to do while back in Peach Creek and that was talk to May, and now that she was home it was time for her to do just that.

May wasn't surprised to see Eddy walk out of the kitchen with a glass of water, having seen him every day for almost a week now, but she didn't expect to see Edd following him. "Hey Double Dee." She says greeting her sister's boyfriend.

"Hello May, how have you been?" Edd says returning the greeting.

"Good, so if you're here that must mean Marie-"

"Come on May, we need to have a sister to sister talk." Marie says interrupting May as she walked out of the living room. She grabs May's arm and pulls her up the stairs to the girl's bedroom.

A while later, after goodbyes were said and promise of keeping Marie informed, Edd and Marie are back on the road to Lemon Brook.

"Do you feel any better?" Edd asks Marie as they pull onto the highway.

"A little, thank you for putting up with me and all this crap." Marie says looking forward to getting back to Lemon Brook and hopefully back to how things were the day after her birthday.

"It was no trouble at all Marie, I too was and still am concerned about Lee. I only want the best for her, Eddy and their yet to be born child. I just hope they will be ready when it comes, though knowing Eddy he won't be and will come begging me for help again." Edd says his anger at Eddy coming back "Oh, pardon me, that last bit was a little uncalled for."

Marie lets out a short laugh, the first one she's had in a few days, at Edd obvious annoyance at Eddy. "It's ok Muffin, we both know that he is a grade A idiot."

Edd was happy to hear Marie laugh again and chose to see if he could get her to again. "Well to be honest I think he's more of a grade B, or if we are to go off his school performance he's a D or a C- at best."

It worked and Marie laughed again filling Edd's old green car with the sound of her laughter that Edd enjoys to hear. "Oh man." Marie says grinning from the laughter. "Thanks Double Dee, I needed that."

"Happy to be of serious." He says happy to have made her laugh and hoping that this was the end of the shocking changes for a while.

**AN: Sorry this one is short, but I wanted this arch of the story to be by itself, nothing else with it as this is kind of a big plot point (that a few of you guessed). I have the rest of the story planned out and its looking like its going to be shorted then the original but who knows what I'll come up with between now and writing the rest.**


	8. Chapter 8

Days later Edd is walking down an aisle of Books and More putting books away while humming. After the bombshell that Marie and him went through he was happy to be in his element. He's glad that things have gotten back to normal, or as normal as things could get after finding out one of your best friends got the sister of your girlfriend pregnant. He is still a little miffed at Eddy for not being safe with Lee, but he is glad that Eddy is doing the right thing and being there for Lee.

"Pardon me." Edd says to a woman reading a book in one hand while holding the hand to a small child chewing on something with the other. The woman takes a step to the side pulling her child with her while not taking her eyes off the book.

Still humming Edd kneels down to put a book away on a lower shelf. As he's shuffling books around to fit the addition to the shelf he feels his hair move. It was a slight move so he didn't think much of it.

As he's walking away he hears the small child say to its mother; "Mommy I want more gum."

'Poor child must have swallowed the gum it was chewing, that is going to come back on that mother.' He thinks pushing his cart down a different aisle.

"Um Eddward, there… there's something in your hair…" Kelly says as Edd entered the backroom.

"I'm sorry?" Edd says turning around to face his boss holding a clipboard.

Kelly points at Edd with a look of sympathy. "In your hair, there is something that looks like gum." She says repeating herself.

The color drains from Edd's face. Slowly he reaches back and touches the back of his head. He starts from the top and slowly runs his hand over his hair until he came to a strange lump at his neck. "Oh no…" He says feeling a lot of his hair stuck to the peace of gum.

Quickly he runs to the small employee restroom in the back room needing to see what the back of his head looked like.

He pushes the door open and flips the light on as he slams into the counter the sink was in. He climbs onto the counter and pulls his hair around while turning his head enough to look at his hair in the mirror. "Oh no, no no no no!" He says looking at the large mass of pink gum holding a lot of his hair.

"I'm sorry that happened Eddward." Kelly says walking into the doorway.

"This is horrible! This is a massive mess!" Edd says pulling at the gum and feeling it pull at his hair.

"Gum getting into hair is never good, let me take a look." Kelly says walking over to Edd.

He was a little unsure of letting Kelly touch his hair, having only let four other people touch his hair, but he knows this is a big deal and lets her take the clump of his hair with the gum in it.

Kelly moves his hair around looking at the lump of gum. "Jesus Eddward, this is bad." She says being honest with him.

"Do- do you think it can be removed?" Edd asks as Kelly continues to look at his hair.

Kelly lets go of his hair. "I don't think so Eddward, it's really sticky and runny, I think you're going to have to get it cut." She says again being honest with him.

"Cut? Oh no no no." Edd says not like the idea of getting his hair cut to remove the gum. Over the years he come to love having his long hair and he knows that Marie would be upset if he came home without the long hair that she also loves.

Kelly takes a few steps back from Edd and asks; "Do you have a barber or someone you trust to cut your hair? Cause this is going to take some skill."

Edd climbs down from the counter. "I have someone I trust back in Peach Creek, but by the time my shift ends I will not be able to make it there in time before his shop closes." He says remembering the time that Chucks shop closes.

"This is bad enough that I'm going to let you cut out early." Kelly says deciding that Edd needs to get his hair taken care of as soon as he could.

"I cannot let you do that for me, I am the new guy and should not be receiving any special treatment."

"You maybe the new guy Eddward, but you're a hard worker. And if you keep working that is only going to get worse."

"But-" He says not wanting to leave.

"No buts Eddward." Kelly says cutting Edd off. "If you need it to be, I'm telling you as your boss to leave the store, get into your car and drive back to Peach Creek and get your hair fixed." She says pointing at him.

"I…" Edd says still wanting to argue against Kelly, but he knew she was in the right. "Oh very well, that you Kelly. If I get back in time I will return to work for the rest of my shift." He says accepting her offer to let him go.

"Don't bother Eddward, enjoy the evening with your fiancé." Kelly says walking out of the restroom. Kelly says walking towards her office.

"Marie and I are not engaged Kelly, she is just my girlfriend." Edd says correcting Kelly on the status of his relationship with Marie.

Kelly stops and turns back around. "Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed you two were by how you talked about her." She says regretting her assumption about Edd and Marie.

Edd found her mistake a little funny, which helped quell the storm that started in him over the gum getting into his hair. "It's quite alright. Marie says she's not fond of the idea of marriage." He says telling her that Marie doesn't want to give up her last name.

Kelly smiles. "I should tell you that women don't always mean what they say." She says finding his ignorance about the opposite sex funny.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Edd says confused by what Kelly said.

"Don't worry about Eddward, just get going to your barber." Kelly says waving Edd along.

Edd is worried that he might not make it back to Lemon Brook in time to pick Marie up when she gets off work herself. So when he gets into his car he sends her a text message.

"I might not be able to pick you up from work tonight Marie." He texts to Marie.

"Something happen?" She responds back to him.

Not wanting her to know what happened yet he sends; "I need to head back to Peach Creek to take care of something."

"Ok, I'll see you when you get home Muffin. ;-*"

"I will let you know when I am on my way back."

"K. Love ya."

"I love you too Marie." He sends to her before putting his phone away and starting his car.

"I bet one of the other Ed's did something stupid again." Marie says putting her phone into her back pocket. She was in the process of cleaning the outside windows of Little Arts when Edd texted her and she's stop working when his first message arrived.

As she went back to spraying and then whipping window cleaner off the windows she started humming.

"Humming while you work? Sounds like someone has love on the brain." Marie hears Sidney say from the door to the store.

Marie looks over at her boss. "My man may have texted me." She says giving Sidney a sly grin.

"Heh, you're a hoot Marie. When you're done out here I could use your help moving some fall decoration things out onto the floor." Sidney says with a laugh at Marie. Sidney had really grown to like Marie, her wild nature always gives Sidney something to laugh at, which was something she didn't get a lot of before hiring Marie.

"K." Marie says turning away from her boss to continue cleaning the windows. Marie has also grown to like Sidney a lot. She the first person with authority over Marie, besides her own mother, that Marie actually has respect for. Marie loves everything about her new job, Sidney is a really laid back boss and let Marie get away with a lot of things so long as she helped all the customers that came in and she's even grown to care about the upkeep of the building. Which is why she's been taking extra care to clean the windows to perfection.

When she was done Marie takes a step back away from the windows and smiles as she takes in her hard work. "Not too shabby." She says happy with how the windows look.

As she reached to pick up the bottle of window cleaner from where she's put it by the window her phone vibrates in her pocket.

Pulling out her phone she sees it's another text message, but this one is from May.

"Hey, Lee is fine. Eddy came over with a box of fruit and then she had him paint her toe nails." The message from May says.

"Damn. He is really showing devotion to her." Marie responds back to her sister.

When Marie talked with May she told May to keep her up today on Lee, but not to tell Lee that May is sending daily text messages to Marie.

"Well it was that or we kill him, right?" May sends making Marie laugh.

"That option is still on the table for me if he steps out of line." Marie sends back to May as she enters the shop.

Edd never did get back to her that he will be able to pick her up from work. So when Sidney let her go for the night she put her earbuds into her ears, threw on her old black hoodie and started walking home.

Walking past an alleyway Marie hears a cat scream and she stops to look into the alleyway to see what made the noise. Looking into the alleyway Marie spots a big mangy looking cat attacking something a lot smaller that wasn't fighting back.

"Hey!" She yells at the big cat. She's not sure what made her want to scare off the big cat, but as she yelled at it and walked into the alleyway it jumped and ran further into the alleyway.

Marie approaches where the big cat was she sees that it was a very small kitten that it was attacking.

Seeing the kitten pulled at Marie's heart strings. "Hey, you ok?" She asks kneeling down next to the kitten. The kitten didn't look to be in too bad of shape, but it did have a piece of its left ear missing.

Slowly Marie holds her hand out to the kitten. "It's ok, I won't hurt you." She says getting closer to the kitten.

The kitten looks at Marie with fear in its eyes, but slowly calms down and tries to get up. When it tried to stand on all four paws it picks up its left front paw. "Aww your hurt." Marie says feeling a large amount of sympathy for the kitten. Marie has never been much of an animal person, but she feels drawn to the little kitten. "Come here little one, I'll take care of ya." She says reaching out with both hands to pick up the kitten.

The kitten seemed a little hesitant when Marie tied to pick it up, but when it felt the gentle touch of Marie's hands it submitted to Marie picking it up.

"There we go little one, come with me and I'll get you something to eat." Marie says walking back out of the alleyway with the kitten in her arms.

When she gets out of the dark alleyway she sees the kitten has a coat of black and grey mixed fur with almost gold colored stripes on its tail and one down its left eye. She also sees that it's a boy kitten. "You are a handsome little ball of fur, would you like some tuna?" She asks holding the kitten close to her chest.

It meows at her and starts purring. "Oh damn, you are frisking cutie." She says already falling in love with the little male kitten.

"This is where I live." Marie says as she opened the door to the apartment. The kittens looked around the main room of the apartment and meows. As she walked home Marie noticed that the kitten did not smell very nice and decided that it needed a bath.

She walks into the kitchen and sets the kitten down on the counter next to the sink. "Stay right there, I'll be right back." Marie says pointing at the kitten on the counter.

The kitten meowed at her and walked over to the edge of the counter wanting to follow her, but stops not knowing how to get down.

Hearing the kitten meow at her pulled at her heartstrings again and she picks up her paste walking to the bathroom. Inside the bathroom she grabs her towel from the rack and her bottle of shampoo from the shower. 'I hope its ok to use this stuff on him.' She thinks looking at her bottle of shampoo. 'I guess I just have to keep it out of his eyes.'

When she goes back into the main room the kitten starts meowing at her and moving around on the counter.

"It's ok, I'm back." Marie says walking back into the kitchen.

It took some effort to give the kitten a bath, but in the end he smelled like her lilac shampoo instead of various forms of filth, and she only got three scratches from him too.

After drying the kitten with her towel Marie opens a can of tuna and sets it down on the floor for the kitten to eat. It sniffed at the can of fish before eating the tuna very fast.

"Damn, you are hungry." She says watching the kitten inhaling the food as if it hasn't eaten in a while. "You're probably trusty too." She adds getting up from the floor to fill a bowl with water for the kitten.

Edd has been sitting in his car for several minutes looking at his reflection in the window. He was able to get back to Peach Creek just before Chuck closed up for the night. Chuck was able remove the gum from Edd's hair, but he also had to take a large amount of hair as well. It's no longer down just past his shoulders and parted down the middle of his head, it's now about three inches long and shaggy looking.

And now he's sitting outside of the apartment building worried that Marie is going to be sad about him no longer having long hair.

"We cannot stay out here all night Eddward." He says trying to convince himself to leave the car.

He takes out his pocket watch and sees that he's approaching ten minutes of sitting in his car not wanting to go upstairs to his home. "Marie loves us for more than just hair, I am sure that she will only be mildly upset." He says opening his car door.

Even though he finally mustered the courage to go up to the apartment, he still took his time checking the mail and climbing up the stairs.

Slowly he unlocks the door and then turns the knob opening the door. "Hey han- What happened to your hair Edd?" Marie asks as Edd walks into the apartment.

She gets up from the floor where she was sitting forgetting about why she was sitting on the floor and walks over to him.

As she is walking over Edd says; "I had to get it cut, when I was at work today a small child disposed of his chewing gum into my hair. When my boss pointed it out to me it had been in my hair for almost an hour and the only want to remove it was to cut away the hair." Not looking at her out of what she might say.

"Hey." Marie says moving his head with one of her hands. "Sorry you lost your sexy hair Double Dee." She's a little sad but hair is just hair, it's his heart and mind she cares about not the long black hair he used to have.

"I honestly thought you would be upset when you saw my hair, I know how much you liked my long hair." Edd says his worries about what she would say leaving him.

"It's just hair silly, plus now it can't get in the way anymore." Marie says running her other hand thought his short shaggy hair.

Edd has always enjoyed the feeling of Marie running her fingers through his long hair, and even though it wasn't entirely the same, he enjoys the feeling of her running her fingers through his now short hair.

"Wait." Marie says taking her hands off of Edd. "Did you drive all the way to Peach Creek just to get your hair cut?" She asks guessing why Edd needed to drive to their home town.

"Chuck is the only person I've ever had cut my hair." He says with a small smile.

"Your silly." Marie says giving him a quick kiss.

*Meow*

"What was that?" Edd asks.

"Oh, he's woken up!" Marie says running back to where she was sitting on the floor. "So when I was walking home I found this little guy getting attacked." She says holding the little kitten up to Edd.

Edd walks over to Marie holding the kitten. "Hello there little one." He says holding his hand out to the kitten.

"Isn't he cute?" Marie asks pushing the kitten into Edd's hands forcing him to hold it.

Edd also has never been much of an animal person, having Ed as a friend growing up was enough of an animal to deal with. "He is rather adorable." He says looking at the kitten in his hands.

"You… think we can keep him?" Marie asks wanting to keep the kitten. "I know it's a lot of responsibility owning a cat and that he'd need to be fed every day and all that stuff."

Edd hands the kitten back to Marie and the kitten starts to purr. "Well he does seem to have taken a liking to you, and seeing as you are ok with the loss of my hair I don't see why we can't keep the little guy."

Marie's eyes light up. "Really? Thank you Muffin!" She says jumping at him and giving him a one armed hug, using the other to hold the kitten, and kissing him.

"He does need a name you know." Edd says wrapping his arms around her.

With one arm still around his neck Marie holds the kitten up to her face looking at it. "Hum…" She says trying to think up a name for the kitten. "Lord Leonidas the Third." She says naming the kitten.

Edd laughs at the name. "Lord Leonidas the Third? Why pray tell did you choose that name?" he asks curious as to why she chose that name.

Grinning Marie says; "He looks like he could be a Spartan king." Causing Edd to laugh again.

"Very well, welcome to our home Lord Leonidas the Third. Do you mind if I just call him Leonidas?" Edd asks Marie scratching Leonidas on the head.

Leonidas meows at Edd and starts to purr as his head was scratched.

"I think that's a yes." Marie says kissing Edd again.

Later that night Edd and Marie are watching TV. Edd is leaning against the right arm of the couch and Marie is leaning up against him with Leonidas sleeping on her lap.

Looking up at Edd Marie says; "You should let me mess around with your hair, give you some styling."

Edd looks down at her and sees something he's only ever seen once before since meeting Marie. "Sure, I would love to see what you can do. But I think you might want to take care of this." He says poking the top of her head at where her red roots are showing.

"What?" Marie says touching the top of her head.

"Your roots are showing." Edd says putting his arm back around Marie.

Marie glares at the TV. "Shoot, and I don't have any dye." She says unhappy that she's let her hair grow out without keeping an eye on her roots.

Edd lets a grin cross his face. "I'm sure you can get some tomorrow." He says finding her frustration cute.

"But that will mean I have to go to work with my red hair showing." She says pouting.

Edd could tell she was upset about her natural hair color showing and an idea comes to him. "If you don't want people to see your roots you could always borrow my old ski hat for the day."

Marie stopes pouting at the mention of wearing Edd's hat. "Ooo, I've always wanted to wear your hat." She says looking up at him.

"I'll have to go through a box and find it, but it is yours to borrow."

"Sweet."

Leonidas ended up sleeping on their pillows above their heads, which both Edd and Marie found amusing.

Throughout the morning Leonidas was following Marie around the apartment. "I guess he thinks of me as his mom." Marie says walking out of the bathroom holding her toothbrush with Leonidas following her and meowing.

"Well you did save him from his attacker." Edd says walking out of the bedroom holding his old black ski hat. "Here you go Marie, one fifteen year old ski hat formerly worn by myself." He says holding his hat out to Marie.

Even though he no longer wears his old hat, he still feels the need to keep it close.

Marie takes the hat from him and smiles. "I promise I'll take good care of it Double Dee." She says walking back into the bathroom to use the mirror to put the hat on and make sure her bangs stayed in place.

A minute or two later Marie comes back out of the restroom with Edd's ski hat on with her bangs still covering her right eye. "How do I look?" She asks turning around to show Edd how she looks with his hat on.

"Adorable." Edd says smiling at Marie.

Edd suggested to Marie that they keep Leonidas inside the bathroom while they are not home, not wanting him to pee on anything that couldn't be cleaned. It pained Marie to hear her little kitten meowing at the door as they left the apartment.

"I know it's not an ideal keeping him in there." Edd says opening the door to the apartment. "But it's only for a few hours."

"I know it's so he can't make a mess, but I feel bad having to leave him alone." Marie says as they walk out of the apartment.

After work Marie takes a detour from her usual route to a department store to find some hair dye. Marie has been dying her hair blue for so long that only a handful of people know that it's not her natural color, that being her sisters, mother and Edd. She doesn't hate the red hair that she shares with Lee that they both got from their mother, she just likes having something that sets her apart physically.

While walking through the aisle of hair care products to get a box of blue dye she sees a display of hair wax. "Ooo, this would be fun to use on Double Dee's hair." She says picking up the small cylinder container of hair product.

After finding her hair dye she stops by the pet area of the store. She knows she needed to get some proper cat food for Leonidas but she also realized that he needs a litterbox and some litter.

"I should have done this with Double Dee." She says as she carries the plastic litter box, three pound bag of kitten food, ten pound bag of litter and the hair products.

And as she walks out the doors of the store carrying the shopping bags full of her shopping she really wishes she's made this trip with Edd. But being a Kanker she grits her teeth and pushes through the weight of the bags and makes her way back to the apartment.

But it was worth it when she got home and let Leonidas out of the bathroom and he meowed at her happy to see her again.

"Sorry we had to lock you up in there all day Leonidas, but we didn't want you to make a mess." She says walking into the bathroom. "Like you did on the floor." She adds seeing the small pile of waste Leonidas had left on the linoleum floor.

"Ok Double Dee, sit down and let me go to work." Marie says carrying her hair supplies out of the bathroom.

Edd sits down in his desk chair, which he'd dragged over to the island counter. "So what are you thinking about doing?" He asks running his hand through his short hair. He still doesn't feel like himself without the long hair, but not having to do anything with it did make getting ready in the morning faster and easier.

"Well I got some hair wax when I got my hair dye and I thought I'd just play around with your hair till something looks good." Marie says putting down her brush, com and small mirror she'd stole from her sisters when they visited Lee.

"So long as you don't give me any matting plumage." Edd says trying to make a joke

"Don't worry Muffin, I'll make you look sexy." She says breaking the seal on the hair wax from behind Edd.

Marie takes a small glob of the wax out of the container and rubs it over her hands before she worked the wax into Edd's hair.

As Marie works the wax into Edd's hair Leonidas starts to rub against his leg. Edd looks down at the kitten. "Hello Leonidas." He says lowering his hand down near the kitten. Leonidas smells Edd's hand and then rubs his head against Edd's hand.

Carefully Edd picks up the kitten and sets it on his lap and starts to pet him. "I hope you were ok today being in the restroom all day."

"He was really happy to see me when I got home, but I think we should keep doing that until he learns to use his litter box." Marie says having fun with playing with Edd's hair.

"You could have waited for me to get off of work so you didn't have to carry everything you bought for Leonidas." Edd says feeling guilty that he wasn't able to be a gentleman and provide transportation for his girlfriend.

"Eh, it's ok. Walking helps keep me looking good." She says as she starts to mess Edd's hair up by furiously running her fingers randomly though his hair.

Edd chuckles, partly at what Marie said and the other part at the feeling of her playing around with his hair.

"Hum." Marie says taking her hands away from Edd's hair looking at it. Despite her best efforts Marie couldn't get Edd's hair to look good to her. "I don't think hair wax is for you Double Dee." She says accepting that she couldn't get his a good style for his hair.

Edd looks up at her. "Well it was worth a try." He says giving her a smile.

"I guess I can only increase your level of sexy once in a life time." She says walking over to the kitchen sink to wash off the hair wax from her hands.

Edd gets up from his desk chair and follows her.

Wrapping his arms around her and kissing her on the cheek he says; "Styling my hair back in high school was a life changing point."

Marie leans back against Edd. "Heh, that whole weekend was life changing." She says smiling up at him.

Later that night Marie is in the bathroom dying her roots while Edd did the dishes from dinner. Edd had taken a shower before she started dying her hair to wash out the hair wax. Looking down at her gloved hands covered in the dye an idea comes to Marie and her wicked smile comes to her face. Using her elbows she opens the door and quietly and slowly walks over to Edd.

As Edd rinses off the last plate he smells something very similar to ammonia. He stops moving the plate under the running water and sniffs the air as a confused look comes to his face. He was about to turn around to see if Marie had opened the door to the bathroom when he feels a pair of hands grab his head and turn him around. Smiling Marie pulls his head down to hers and starts kissing him while running her hands through his hair.

When they break the kiss Edd sees that Marie has a big grin on her face and is giggling. "What are you giggling about?" He asks a smile coming to his face as well.

Still grinning Marie takes her hands off of Edd's head and shows him the gloves she has on her hands stained with the blue dye.

Edd's eyes grow wide as he looks at the gloves and he touches the top of his head. "Marie." He says wanting to be mad at her, but couldn't be mad at her when she looked as cute as she does smiling at him.

"Sorry Double Dee, I couldn't help it." She says as she starts to take the gloves off.

Edd lets out a little laugh. "It's fine Marie, I'm use to your antics."

"I guess I will just have to try harder." She says leaning up to give him another kiss.

With his hair being black and Marie only having a small amount of hair dye on her hands his hair didn't have any blue visible unless the light caught his hair at the right angle.

"Looks like my mischief will go unknown." Marie says from behind Edd as she looks through his hair.

They both have changed into their pajama cloths, Edd in his yellow button down ones and Marie in green shorts and her black tank top and were sitting on their bed.

Edd turns around to face Marie. "It would look a little silly if we both have blue hair." He says smiling.

"It would, but you always got to let your freak flag fly." She says scooting closer to Edd.

"Implying that we are a pair of freaks?" Edd asks wrapping his arms around her.

"Well, more like lovesick fools" She says climbing onto Edd's lap before kissing him.

A few days later Marie is lying on the couch watching TV while the Leonidas slept next to her. The days when she doesn't have to work and Edd was at school or work himself were the hardest days for her. Not having Edd around always lead to her becoming really board. She's already walked down to the coffee shop that was by the apartment and got a cup to go, with a bear claw as well.

She picks up the paper cup from the floor to take a drink and thinks back on the second conversation she had with Jacqueline, the art teacher at the community college.

Once again Jacqueline came into Little Arts to pick up an order, and again Marie was working on her story illustrations.

"Working hard on that I see." Jacqueline says spotting Marie working on an almost finished drawing different than the one she saw Marie working on the first time.

Marie closes her sketch book, not wanting Jacqueline to see the drawing of her in a wet princess dress kissing a wet Edd dressed how people looked in cartoon movies set in medieval times. "It's been a slow day." Marie says lying to Jacqueline. Marie has actually been working really hard on the story book everyday she's worked, even on days like this where there has been a constant stream of people coming into the shop.

"Hum." Jacqueline says not believing Marie. After her first conversation with Marie, Jacqueline talked to Donna about Marie. Donna told Jacqueline that Marie was one of, if not the best, student she's had for years and if she had some drive to do more with it, Marie could do amazing things with her talent.

"You know Marie, have you ever thought about putting some of your works online? Even if it's just a hobby a lot of people show off their work on line." Jacqueline says hoping she could get Marie more enthused about her skills.

"Why would I want to do that?" Marie asks not understanding why Jacqueline would tell her to put her drawing out there for people to see.

"Well if people see your work, they might want to buy some of the stuff you have drawn, you could even get paid to do commissioned work."

Marie likes the idea of people wanting to pay her for something she's made. "Paid huh?" 'And if I could over price sell something to an art snob that would read too much into one of my paintings, I could use the money to buy more painting supplies and for once spoil Double Dee.' She thinks liking the idea of showing people her work.

"What do you think Leonidas? Should I try and take my art seriously and put it out there for people to see?" Marie asks picking up Leonidas waking him up from his nap.

Leonidas looks at her and meows.

She sets the kitten down on her stomach. "You're right, I have to take a chance if I want to do more than just fill sketch books and paint things for Edd." She says as he starts walking on top of her towards her head.

Leonidas meows at her again.

"Yeah I know Double Dee would support me with anything I choose. It's one of the many things I love about him, granted that list is longer than I am tall."

He meows again as he sits on his hind legs on her chest.

"I will do it. I'll go digging around and find some of my best stuff, thanks for helping me with this Leonidas." She says scratching the top of his head.

He moves his head around and licks her hand and meows.

"Ok I'll draw one of you too." She says as she starts to laugh at the fact she was having a conversation with her pet.

When Edd gets home that night he sees that Marie has all of her sketch books out on the island counter with pages cut out of them. "What are doing Marie?" He asks walking over to her sitting on one of the stools at the island counter.

Marie turns around on the stool. "I'm making a portfolio of my drawings." She says getting up off the stool.

"Of your art? But you never let people look in your sketchbooks." Edd says shocked that Marie is not only going to apparently let people see her drawing, what other reason would be to make a portfolio of her work, but also that she's gone and cut pages out of her sketch books.

Marie walks over to Edd and gives him a hug. "Yeah, I was thinking that maybe I could try and make some money with my stills." She says before giving him a quick kiss.

"Huh, that is something I never thought you would do." He says not talking his hand from around Marie.

"Why? If I can swindle some old dude out of a couple hundred dollars because he thinks there is more to one of my paintings then there is why shouldn't I?" Marie asks feeling Leonidas rub against there legs.

Edd smiles at Marie being honest about her motive for making a portfolio. "I'm not saying you shouldn't. It's just that I never thought you'd let people look at what you've drawn." He says reaching down and picking up Leonidas with one hand.

"I know, going from three people seeing then to, hopefully, hundreds is a big jump. But if ya got the skills, use them to pay the bills." Marie says scratching Leonidas behind the ear.

"Been working on that line for a while?" he asks with a smile.

"Only put like thirty minutes into it." She says before giving him a quick kiss.

A few days later when Marie worked she decides to ask Sidney about selling paintings and getting commissions.

"Hey Sidney, got a minute?" Marie asks walking over to her boss sitting at the checkout counter going over some paperwork.

"Always Marie." Sidney says looking up from her paperwork

Marie leans the broom she was using to sweep the shop with against the counter. "So I've been thinking about trying to do something with my drawing and painting skills." She asks feeling her nerves stir up her stomach.

"Other than doodling in your sketchbook in-between customers?" Sidney asks with a sly smile.

"Seen me doing that I take it?" Marie asks expecting a lecture to be given to her.

Sidney looks back down at her paperwork. "Yeah, but I really don't care so long as you don't slack off too much."

"You're awesome Sidney." Marie says with a smile happy that her boss didn't seem to mind her drawing when there was no work to be done.

"Thank you Marie. So what were you hoping to do with your skills?" Sidney asks going back to working on her paperwork.

"At the best, get rich off of stupid people with a lot of money. But I'll settle with selling a painting or two and having people wanting me to make stuff for them." Marie says telling her boss her aspirations of becoming a professional artist.

"Looking to become a freelancer. Most artists for hire go down that road, but it's a long road Marie."

"I'm always up for getting rich quickly, but I kind of figured I couldn't pull this off over night."

Sidney looks back up at her and points at Marie with her pen. "Well to start off you should look at putting you drawing on a website, if there good people will talk about them. And it wouldn't hurt to get some business cards made up."

"I can get Double Dee to help me with that." Marie says making a mental note to talk to Edd about these tips.

Sidney looks at Marie and then down at her paperwork and starts to remember her late husband. Max once had a spot in the window he would show off his own most recent works. "You know what Marie, I'll even let you put a painting in the window to sell." Sidney says thinking it's time to dig out the old display set up Max had sued.

Marie's eyes grow wide. "Really? You'd let me do that?"

"Sure, cores I'd get a cut of your sales and people love local artists and it's a good way to get people to walk into the shop."

"Thank you so much Sidney." Marie says wanting to hid Sidney, but didn't think it would be appropriate. "Why are you doing all of this for me Sidney?" Marie asks her curiosity getting to her.

"You remind me of Max and the fire he had for art."

"I wish I could have met him." Marie says looking away from Sidney.

"Oh I'm sure you two would have gotten along quite well. But back to the topic at hand, do you have anything you think is window worthy?" Sidney asks wiping a tear out of her eye with her thumb

"Well I have this book I've been working on, but that's for Double Dee and him alone." Marie says thinking over what she has at home that she could bring in. "I do have this cool painting I've been working on of my cat as a Spartan warrior." She says remembering the painting she started a few days ago.

"That sounds like it's going to be a master peace." Sidney says curious as how Marie's painting will come out.

"I like to do paintings of strange things. My senior art project was a painting of retro looking robots dancing together, which I got an A on too." Marie says proud of her grade she got on her painting.

"Abstracts are always fun to see, but tell me about this book." Sidney says wanting to hear about Marie's project.

"Well Double Dee came up with this story one night and I liked it a lot and thought it would be fun to try and make a story book out of it."

"What kind of story?"

Marie's cheeks turn a little red. "It's a little personal." She says a little embarrassed over Sidney's question.

Sidney see's Marie's cheeks turning red and starts to laugh. "If it's something naughty you don't have to tell." She says making Marie's cheeks turn redder.

**AN: Got this chapter done early (cause the last one was so short), so enjoy.**


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